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Reviews
Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History by Nick Bunker
yulelogue's review
5.0
Focus is much more on the birth of the Separatist movement in England and the political and cultural turmoil that was taking place in Europe. Not a lot of detail about the day-to-day of the Pilgrims once they reached New Plymouth, and this may be due to not a lot of reliable source material. And almost no mention of the first "Thanksgiving."
emmkayt's review
4.0
I found the first third admirable in its painstakingness, but a bit soporific. And throughout, it was hard for me to keep all those Pilgrims, Separatists and Puritans straight (John, Robert, Thomas, John, Robert, Thomas, etc etc), which made it periodically a bit of a slog. Somewhere around King James' entrails, however, I began to be more drawn in to this excellent exploration of the milieu in which men (and really, Bunker only seems to be interested in men!) came to settle New England. His enthusiasm is charming - I like his little descriptions of relevant places, trying to help the reader see the old geography beyond the modern paving ("turn left at the Dunking Donuts," a historically important field that's now a parking lot for school buses), and I like his commitment to meticulously tracing the threads of history.
bibliophiliac's review
5.0
I had read American historian Nathaniel Philbrick's excellent book, Mayflower, about ten years ago. That book centered largely on the already arrived Pilgrims and was set largely during King Phillip's War (1675-1676). English journalist Nick Bunker's also excellent account of the Mayflower Pilgrims begins before they set sail for the New World, and gives us a rich glimpse of the lives of the men and women who made that fateful voyage. Details of these Separatists' lives were taken from church and church records in England. The book is long and meanders at times, but it gave me some new insights into the motivations of the travelers. From this account, I learned that the Pilgrim's goal was more than just religious freedom. Separatism, according to Bunker, was Christianity blended with ideas about gentility and good government, and seasoned with Greek and Roman ideals of republican virtue. Their decision to flee England had both religious and economic inducements, and the sailing of the Mayflower was also a business venture whose backers were looking to make a financial killing. This history adds some new dimension to the story of America.
sophronisba's review
3.0
Interesting but oddly organized. I felt like it kept switching back and forth between topics and I kept getting lost. Possibly this had to do with my attention span more than anything else.
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