Mayflower: Voyage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

Book Analysis for “Mayflower: Voyage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick”
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Introduction
This paper aims to analyze the book titled above by Philbrick (2006). The book involves the coverage of events since the turn of the seventeenth century, starting from the rise of Puritans in England and their insisting on revising the code of religion to restore the original values, “Puritans believed it was necessary to venture back to the absolute beginning of Christianity before the church had been corrupted” (Philbrick, 2006, p. 8). These beliefs offer insights into the motivation for pilgrims. Pilgrims set sail to America and, in 1920, landed the place they termed "Plymouth," where they settled and associated with natives to learn survival skills. The latter part of the book summarizes the events leading up to the Philip War and subsequent losses of lives and atrocities. A close reading suggests that the author offers a humanized lens to examine early American history by dissecting the intricate interplay of multicultural cooperation, shifting priories, survival instincts, and power struggle.
Purpose of the Book
The book sets itself apart from the precolonial or anti-imperialist stance by giving an overview of the factors that shaped the early American culture and practices from an outsider's perspective. The author indicates the thesis statement in these words: "I soon learned that the real-life Indians and English of the seventeenth century were too smart, too generous, too greedy, too brave—in short, too human—to behave so predictably” (Philbrick, 2006, p. Xvi). These lines retrieved from the preface suggest that an open-ended approach offers a clearer view of the complexities and key factors that shaped the American realities during the formative period of its culture. Hence, instead of subscribing to a particular worldview, the author allows the arbitrariness to manifest itself and presents the unvarnished facts regardless of how they are perceived or whether they are intertwined with each other or not.
A close understanding suggests no definite argument, and the work leaves it to the audience to draw inferences and conclusions. However, it seems convincing that the book emphasizes the fact that history needs to be understood from the below (from a subjective standpoint or the viewpoint of the people directly engaged) and not from the above, which means looking into the people's firsthand experiences. Similarly, the book converges with the argument that cultures are determined through the complex interaction of economic, human, and social factors, and the course of their formation is generally unpredictable. It is evident from how the relationship between pilgrims and native Indians turned around in the second half of the seventeenth century.
Analysis of Themes
One of the themes dominant in the book is rooted in the 'need theory' which the author sets forth in these words: "As long as both sides recognized that they needed each other, there was peace. The next generation, however, came to see things differently” (Philbrick, 2006, p. Xiv). The q...