There was really no question whether or not I'd like this book. Sarah Vowell is one of my favorite writers and I knew that this book would probably join her others in my 'favorites' pile. While I like the topics of her books - Presidential assassinations, American History, vacation stories - the thing I love about her writing is how she tells the stories. She is someone who obviously loves history, but at the same time, she isn't afraid or ashamed to poke fun at it or fearlessly compare it to pop culture. I feel like she's someone who would join in with sarcastic under your breath remarks that I frequently make at zoos and dead Presidents' houses.
This book is about Puritans in Massachusetts in the 1600's. It's really about people that helped found our nation and have been given characterization that is completely wrong: they were incredibly intelligent people who encouraged reading and learning and founded Harvard. They were not silly but gutsy and they referred to the Pope as the Whore of Babylon.
Like her other books, this one is hilarious, informative, and does not disappoint.
I was going to include a little funny excerpt, but there's one I keep thinking about that is not funny, but is rather appropriate, I think, given recent political happenings. It's from a sermon delivered by John Winthrop during the voyage to America. Read it a couple times.
"We must delight in each other, make other's conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body."
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