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Rating: 
Summary: The "American Dream" and Puritan Propaganda
Review: In the colonial stage of America's discovery, Europeans' conception of America appeared to be positive because at this stage the subject was the exploration and settlement of America and that was why Europeans received exaggerating accounts of the New World and its manifold opportunities. The colonizers' tracts and the travelers' accounts exaggerated the romantic attractions of the New World. The vast and abundant resources of the New World were admired, in a propagandistic and persuasive discourse. Both the Puritans and the colonizers (which were often one and the same) wrote exaggerating accounts of their adventures to lure Europeans over to the New World. Mourt's Relation (1622) was written to persuade Europeans that life in Massachusetts was a venture in a plentiful land. The book overlooks the calamities of the first winter and overstates the rich resources of Massachusetts. Yet, it is an excellent read.
Rating: 
Summary: MOURTS RELATION:A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth
Review: THIS BOOK WAS NEVER RECEIVED..AND THE ONE SENT TO REPLACE IT WAS RETURNED..AS YOU SENT A RETURN LABEL..BUT HAVE NEVER RECEIVED CREDIT FOR IT, OR ANOTHER BOOK..AND NOW YOU SAY IT IS UNAVAILABLE..I HAVE THE CHILD'S BOOK..I WAS INTERESTED TO SEE IF ANY OF MY 'ANCESTORS' WERE ON THE MAYFLOWER..AS I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT PERHAPS SOMEONE WAS..Can't rate it when I haven't seen it to see what is in it..Thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful and Surprising
Review: This delightful little book describes the first year of the Pilgrims in America. Written to make life in Massachusetts sound like an adventure in a bounteous land, the book ignores the extreme hardship of the first winter and instead focuses on the rich resources of Massachusetts and the relationship the Pilgrims developed with the Indians. Here, the book drives home two points: (1) Europeans had long come to North American to fish and trade. These activities left a mixed legacy that the pilgrims had to overcome. (2) The Indians were everywhere. In fact, the first trip by the Pilgrims to visit chief Massasoit was motivated in part by this fact: Indians families were coming in great numbers to Plymouth to look at the English and interact with them. This was keeping the English from focusing on their farming. A wonderful book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent concise history as seen by those who made it
Review: This is an excellent book. The unknown author ("Mourt") describes in detail the accounts of life during the settlement of the Pilgrims. "He" describes the account in a day-to-day style, accounting for making food, building houses, and encounters with the indigenous peoples. The Pilgrams' travels to find a home and the actual settling are fascinating and well described. I will never think of the Pilgrims or indigenous peoples the same way again. Overall, this book is very insightful.The language is archaic, I feel I must warn you. But if you can get past that, and you like colonial history, you'll love this one. It will give you a much better idea about the Pilgrams, far beyond the over-dramatized and unrealistically happy Thanksgiving story.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent concise history as seen by those who made it
Review: This is an excellent book. The unknown author ("Mourt") describes in detail the accounts of life during the settlement of the Pilgrims. "He" describes the account in a day-to-day style, accounting for making food, building houses, and encounters with the indigenous peoples. The Pilgrams' travels to find a home and the actual settling are fascinating and well described. I will never think of the Pilgrims or indigenous peoples the same way again. Overall, this book is very insightful. The language is archaic, I feel I must warn you. But if you can get past that, and you like colonial history, you'll love this one. It will give you a much better idea about the Pilgrams, far beyond the over-dramatized and unrealistically happy Thanksgiving story.
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