Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Viking, HK$234
Most immigrants to the US find the Thanksgiving holiday confusing. Ask any American, and they'll explain that it's a celebration of the day the English pilgrims made peace with the Native American Indians by sitting down to eat with them. As Nathanial Philbrick's pop history page-turner points out, that's essentially true. But there was more going on behind that now-mythical event than is known.
All countries need their myths, and the US is no different. The Thanksgiving holiday was instituted in Victorian times to help provide the founding of America with its own.
Philbrick isn't in the business of myth-busting, although his work is often sympathetic to the Native Americans. What's known about the Mayflower voyage and the Pilgrim fathers' settlement at Plymouth is true, he says. His book aims to go deeper and examine the complex web of alliances and enmities between the settlers, the Indians and European governments.