Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War is a historical nonfiction narrative by New York Times bestseller Nathaniel Philbrick (Valiant Ambition). The book outlines the reasons for the Mayflower’s historic voyage and offers a realistic account of the Pilgrims' first 55 years in the New World. Perhaps most important, in Philbrick’s assessment, is the tenuous relationship between the Pilgrims and their Indigenous neighbors, and the text investigates superficial assessments of the Pilgrims, including the view that they were “good” while their Indigenous neighbors were “bad.” Ultimately, Philbrick shows the reader that this particular episode in American history was more complicated than that.

Mayflower establishes how the Pilgrims and the Pokanoket people developed a relationship based on mutual need. The Pilgrims were struggling to survive in a harsh new environment and needed allies to support their settlement. The Pokanoket, led by Massasoit, had lost their place as the most powerful people in the region, and saw the Pilgrims as possibly the key to restoring their status. Though initially distrustful of each other, the two groups came together to ensure their survival, political and otherwise.

Philbrick traces the Pilgrims’ origins to England and Leiden, in Holland, where they were known as Separatists.