Helpful Score: 1
What a great book for capturing local color! And when you read of Roberts' personal family history in Maine it has even more richness. The story bogs down a bit in places (not just when they're traversing bogs!), and there's too much discounting of the motives of the Sons of Liberty and some figures I know something of in history in comparison to too much elevation of the noble red man, but it's still a good read.
Roberts doesn't really understand Jonathan Edwards, for example, caricaturing his writings and theology in ways I find distasteful. And he makes the origins of the American Revolution seem so petty and mob-oriented that we almost cannot recognize the heroes he reveals as the dust (or snow!) settles at the end. I don't know the history of the Indians of the area, but he makes them too uniformly noble and at the same time really slams the Plymouth Colony. But the P.C. was relatively small and had much better relations with many Indians than Roberts allows for. Perhaps he's thinking of the Massachusetts Bay Colony of a few years later? And even so, I don't think things were as one-sided (the white men dolts and oppressors) as he suggests.
So if this isn't your only source for understanding American history of the era, enjoy! And if you're tempted to take Roberts' word for some of these issues, try reading William Bradford's account in *Of Plymouth Plantation* or some of historian Perry Miller's accounts of these colonists (and Miller does not share their faith/culture, so he does not have an axe to grind on that subject). Read some of Jonathan Edwards' own missionary efforts among the Indians or his presentation of protege David Brainerd's work with them.
But still, it's a good book! :-)
Roberts doesn't really understand Jonathan Edwards, for example, caricaturing his writings and theology in ways I find distasteful. And he makes the origins of the American Revolution seem so petty and mob-oriented that we almost cannot recognize the heroes he reveals as the dust (or snow!) settles at the end. I don't know the history of the Indians of the area, but he makes them too uniformly noble and at the same time really slams the Plymouth Colony. But the P.C. was relatively small and had much better relations with many Indians than Roberts allows for. Perhaps he's thinking of the Massachusetts Bay Colony of a few years later? And even so, I don't think things were as one-sided (the white men dolts and oppressors) as he suggests.
So if this isn't your only source for understanding American history of the era, enjoy! And if you're tempted to take Roberts' word for some of these issues, try reading William Bradford's account in *Of Plymouth Plantation* or some of historian Perry Miller's accounts of these colonists (and Miller does not share their faith/culture, so he does not have an axe to grind on that subject). Read some of Jonathan Edwards' own missionary efforts among the Indians or his presentation of protege David Brainerd's work with them.
But still, it's a good book! :-)
