Books
On My Bookshelf
It may come as a surprise, but librarians, like many professionals,
often struggle to find the time to read for their own pleasure and
enrichment. Luckily, John Collins, librarian of Gutman Library
and faculty member, has found himself with more time outside of
work for books. In this edition of On My Bookshelf, Collins shares
how one book, rich with his home state’s history, touched him.
It is often assumed that librarians are constant readers. Up until recently, however, nearly all of my reading was academic, leaving little time for recreational reading. That changed when my wife and I moved to Cambridge. No longer faced with two or three hours of commuting, I found that the early morning hours are ideal for enjoying an extra cup of coffee and a good book. I began with the latest fiction covered in The New York Times Book Review. And, at work, colleagues would recommend titles or I would discover something on the shared bookshelf in the staff lounge.
Recently, a librarian friend told me of a book about the Pilgrims, Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. I put it on my list.
This is a captivating book, nominated for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History. Philbrick’s prose brings history alive in compelling descriptions of landscapes, people, and the stark hardships of the times. He presents Native American perspectives on events as equally as he describes the colonists’ viewpoints. Mayflower traces 55 years of early American history and weaves stories of familiar names — Bradford, Alden, Standish, Massasoit — into a fascinating historical recounting of discovery, survival, politics, economics, law, war, and the frailty of the human condition.
We all relate to books that we read, bringing our own experiences to bear on our interpretations of literature. I reacted to Philbrick’s history on a very personal level. I grew up in Western Massachusetts near Old Deerfield and now spend a great deal of time on Cape Cod. My son spent a semester abroad in Leiden, Holland — the first stop of the Pilgrims — and now lives in Plymouth, Mass. When our children were young we would bring them to King Philip’s Rock, a spot deep in a swampy forest behind our home in Foxboro, Mass., where, according to local legend, King Philip had hidden from his pursuers.
I learned a great deal from this book. I was intrigued by the descriptions of the buying and selling of property, deeds, land transfers, Native American politics, and the economics of the times. I was disturbed by the stories of betrayal and brutality, and saddened by the descriptions of the war. Philbrick takes the story of the Pilgrims beyond that which we usually hear and provides us with a rich description of the beginning and underpinnings of contemporary America.
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
By Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin, 2007
About the Article
A version of this article originally appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Respond to this story with an e-mail to the editor.
