The Steerage of the Mayflower: The Real Story

Nathaniel Philbick wrote the informative book on historical events called the Mayflower as a class we had to read and discuss the section of chapters assigned. The main key ideas of the passages was about what happened when they settled and explored,  how they dealt with natives and their religious beliefs. 

After we read them and took a bunch of notes and outlined it, we formed into small groups to discuss it. I was the DURT leader which means “did you read thoroughly?” I had to come up with question that proved everyone read the chapters and outline the general jist of the section. The other people in a group are the Historian, Theme finder and stylist. We took a whole period to discuss what happened and t answer any unanswered questions.

 The book provided great detail as to what the settlers experienced when dealing with the harsh weather, natives and diseases. I found it interesting because it was worded more like the author was telling a story rather than spewing out facts about the early settlers of New England.

The text was written pretty clear except at some parts it would get dry and you’d lose track of what you were reading and have to read the whole paragraph. Also, the author seemed to go into extreme detail on the less important events and then very little on the main events which I found a little strange.

But, overall I did like it, it was way more interesting than any other historical secondary source novel I’ve ever read.  I would recommend the chapters or the whole book to people who are interested in history but don’t like how bland normal novels are written. Also, to historians, it lets you step into the shoes of a settler and get a good idea of what they were feeling.

Overall, I would give the book 3.5 stars just because in some places it was a little hard to follow which caused for a lot of rereading and wasted time. Also, it gave too much detail on smaller parts rather than the main events.