A Great and Godly Adventure - Softcover

Hodgson, Godfrey

3.38

100 ratings by Goodreads

9781586485047: A Great and Godly Adventure

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1586485040 ISBN 13: 9781586485047

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2007

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The first Thanksgiving wasn't celebrated with turkey (there weren't any in Massachusetts) and didn't take place in 1621. Indeed the settlers, who probably didn't think of themselves as Pilgrims and were most certainly not revolutionaries against their king, were lucky not to be wiped out during their first winter. They probably would have been had the local Indian population not been affected even worse by disease and starvation.

In this fascinating history of America's favorite creation myth, peppered with delightful and unexpected insights, Godfrey Hodgson throws new light on the radicalism of the so-called Pilgrims, the financing of their trip, the state of the Indian tribes that they encountered when they landed and the reasons why Plymouth probably didn't have a rock.

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About the Author:

Godfrey Hodgson is currently a visiting journalism professor at the City University in London, and has just retired as director of the Reuters Foundation Programme at Oxford University, where for eight years he was a Fellow of Green College. He is the author of four previous books.

From Publishers Weekly:

After reading this book, readers may finally fully understand the meaning of Thanksgiving as the Pilgrims first intended. Beginning with the religious movements in 17th century Europe, Hodgson gives a fastidiously researched description of the path that leads the Pilgrims to the new world to preach their godly message. Contrary to 19th century prints, Hodgson describes the Pilgrims at their first landing, not "with fife and drum, watched by cowering Indians, but staggering ashore, exhausted, drenched, and chilled to the bone." Establishing the colony was a brutal exercise. The Pilgrims endured "the starving time," and had to secretly bury bodies "so the Indians should not suspect how much the settlement was weakened." Hodgson follows the evolution of Thanksgiving into contemporary times, chronicling the rise of football as a Thanksgiving tradition, "almost as sacred as turkey and cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie." At times Hodgson's attention to detail slows down the narrative, but balances it out with the tale on the high seas and the patriotism of the colonists.
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