"[Philbrick] has written a jUdicious, fascinating work of revisionist history. Mayflower is a surprise-filled account of what are supposed to be some of the best-known events in this country’s past but are instead an occasion for collective amnesia. As Mr. Philbrick points out, the national memory tends to skip from the first Thanksgiving to the Shot Heard ’Round the World without a clue about the 150 years in between. Philbrick does a fine job integrating the familiar with the fresh As fine a conversation piece as it is a work of scholarship."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

That simple question launches acclaimed author Nathaniel Philbrick on an extraordinary journey to understand the truth behind our most sacred national myth: the voyage of the Mayflower and the settlement of Plymouth Colony As Philbrick reveals in this electrifying new history of the Pilgrims, the story of Plymouth Colony was a fifty-five year epic that began in peril and ended in war. New England erupted into a bloody conflict that nearly wiped out the English colonists and natives alike. These events shaped the existing communities and the country that would grow from them.

List of Maps

Preface: The Two Voyages

Part I Discovery

ONE They Knew TheyWere Pilgrims

TWO Dangerous Shoals and Roaring Breakers

THREE Into the Void

FOUR Beaten with Their Own Rod

FIVE The Heart of Winter

SIX In a Dark and Dismal Swamp

SEVEN Thanksgiving

Part II Accommodation

EIGHT The Wall

NINE A Ruffling Course

Part III Community

TEN One Small Candle

ELEVEN The Ancient Mother

TWELVE The Trial

Part IV War

THIRTEEN Kindling the Flame

FOURTEEN The God of Armies

FIFTEEN In a Strange Way

SIXTEEN The Better Side of the Hedge

EPILOGUE Conscience

Afierword and Acknowledgments

Appendix: Mayflower Passenger List

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Picture Credits