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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.402
EAN num: 9780075542810
ISBN number: 0075542811
Label: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 385
Printing Date: February 01, 1981
Publishing house: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Sale Popularity Level: 21332
Studio: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
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Product Description:
Modern Library College Editions
William Bradford's 'Of Plymouth Plantation' is a remarkable work by a man who himself was something of a marvel. It remains one of the most readable seventeenth-century American books, attractive to us as much for its artfulness as for its high seriousness, the work of a good storyteller with interlligence and wit. Edited, with an Introduction, by Francis Murphy.
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Rated by buyers 
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Excellent book! I read this in combination with the Governer William Bradford's Letter Book and Mourts Relations and Good Newes from New England by Edward Winslow. I am really glad that I have done it this way, because there is further information in the Good Newes from New England that fills in the gaps of certain events.
This is William Bradford's point of view, and the information in it is amazing. If you are into history, then it doesn't get any better than this. Its not very often that you have the opportunity to see events through someone elses eyes, and this does it.
Rated by buyers 
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I was suprised at how gossipy William Bradford was. He told tales about his neighbors and friends and described how the pilgrims constantly bickered with traders and their benefactors over money. My whole fantasy about what I thought the Pilgrims were like has completely changed. Now I consider them petty, self-righteous gossip mongers. The book was good for general information about preparation for their trip and what they actually did when they got here, but as far as historical fact goes, I was unimpressed. Bradford discusses people who stray from the flock, "outsiders" who get girls pregnant, drunkards, and preachers who were not to his liking. It was more like a "dish" session n the Jenny Jones show than something I would be proud to uphold as historical fact to the rest of the nation.
Rated by buyers -
I came across this book quite by accident and didn't think it would be much of a read. Generally speaking I don't read histories and one from the early 1600's was a pretty daunting task - or so I thought. In fact, it was a great tale of adventure and faith and an extremely insightful and thought provoking book about how this country was started and what it must have looked like to those who arrived here some 350 years ago.I really did love this book.
Bradford is an engaging writer whose prose isn't hard to understand. In places his understatement about the death and hardship faced almost constantly is even amusing. Nothing of the kind of challenges that the Leyden pilgrims faced in Massachusetts will seem familiar to a modern reader. Just the same, the fact that it all happened is fascinating. One can almost imagine being there, looking over the decks of the Mayflower and facing all that December gray and wilderness and wondering what you were doing coming here. Told in very first person it reads like an adventure as much as a history.
The pilgrims here are also quite human and not at all the diorama characters of a very first graders Thanksgiving craft project. They face social challenges and the horrors of death and disease. Attacks by natives actually occured on occasion. The dream of a sort of providence is one that proves difficult in the real world. Bradford mourns the loss of these ideals and the people who imported them. There's something a little sad in his later passages, whether it be age or a truly lost paradise one never really knows. But what Bradford imagined as a sort of religious nirvana clearly doesn't pan out in the end. Nevertheless it is well worth the journey. I highly recommend a read of this American classic.
Rated by buyers -
Contrary to a previous review, Bradford can in all accuracy be labelled a Puritan, though he himself would not have appreciated the title, it being a word used as a jibe by their opponents. Nowadays, the word has come to refer to a theological standpoint, independent of political positioning. Hence an Anglican might be a Puritan (see Master Alden who came over on the Mayflower), and a Separatist would be even more likely to be one. Puritans might also be called "the hotter sort" of Protestants, for their strictness in matters scriptural, and Puritan theology is entirely in keeping with Bradford's position and beliefs, both political and religious, as a Separatist.
Previous reviewers seem to have approached the book with differring expectations. If you want to read about John and Priscilla, go to Longfellow, and if you want to read about Constance of the Mayflower, then you won't find her here (except in the records for the 1623 land division, maybe) - and indeed few of the myths of the Pilgrim Story can be found in Bradford's history. This might dissappoint some people who like to paint their history with honest toil and romance, Plymouth Rocks and Thanksgivings, but to a more attentive reader, Bradford has delights enough to keep anybody satisfied. His style is at times cumbersome, and the language of the 1640s(ish) can often obscure the already confusing legal language of some of the letters and contracts in the book. The language and style, though, are part of the book's character. Bradford's reticence in always referring to himself as either "The Governor" or "Governor Bradford" is not only quaint but also instructive, and to dismiss is as tedious is not to give it its due attention.
Overall, Bradford still keeps a sense of adventure and dedication: adventure that the reader may share when confronted with sudden unfamiliar truths of the divisions which separated the Pilgrims, or the decidedly economic flavour to some of the reasons for their departure from Holland. Even to witness on a page before you the very first time in any known source that the word "Pilgrims" was used to describe the settlers at Plymouth, is enough to make the reader feel privileged.
Morison's notes now look somewhat dated - his anachrinistic mention of Communism sticking particularly in the throat, but the reader might share some of his admiration which obviously emerges for the governor and his people. The Pilgrims at Plymouth can in many ways be regarded as adventurers and even (rather more dubiously) pioneers. Maybe if more people were exposed to Bradford's work they would see that although they weren't quite what popular culture would have us think of them, they were all the same resolute and brave people in most untoward circumstances.
Rated by buyers -
Although this account of the pilgrams of Plymoth Plantation's very first few years in the new world may not be entertaining to the student who is unfamiliar with very first hand accounts from original source documents; for those of you who cherish these treasure troves, you have found a gold mine!
I especially loved the carefull choice of words with which Bradford as well as other pilgrams from this era were known for. It would do our society well if we were to employ thier thoughtful and skillful use of words.
I mention the above because it is so foreign to us, but it in no way eclipses the raw content of the book with respect to the very first hand accounts of our fledgling country's history.
This book will dispell many of the myths which in recent years have surfaced about the pilgrams motives for coming to America.
This book is not only well worth the money, but it is also worth the time to read it!
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