Exiled: The Story of John Lathrop

Rating:
Summary: The story of a man's fight to be true to his conscience
Review: This book is the story of John Lathrop, an early English non-conformist, and his fight for religious freedom.

Accounts of people like William Tyndale, John Wycliff and other similar champions of Christianity and freedom are hard to come by these days. Foxe's Book of Martyrs and other similar works contain thumbnail sketches of these champions of religious liberty that had so much to do with the establishment of America. There are extensive scholarly works on some of these figures. But it is difficult to find a popular work that has sufficient depth to really understand the struggles that these people went through to establish religious liberty as a tenet of Western Civilization.

This book fills in this gap. It is the story of an English Minister who is forced into exile because his conscience will not allow him to agree completely with his church.

It is historical and derived from primary sources, but is told in a conversational style much like that of Alan Eckert in his early American historical works. This form of writing flows smoother and is more appealing to someone looking for a good story in addition to learning more information on historical figures and periods.

As an American, I found it particularly interesting as it documented the history of a representative figure who fled the Old World for the New to find religious liberty.

I recommend it for adolescents and adults who would appreciate learning more of this early American immigrant and the causes that led to so many similar immigrants coming to America. The genealogy list of descendants of John Lathrop notes that over half of the 43 Presidents of the United States were (and are since GWB is also related) related to this man.