lewismillholland's review against another edition
4.0
Correcting popular misconceptions of history comes with a bonus prize: snobbish self-gratification. Oh, you still think Christopher Columbus was a hero? You think the Civil War was about state’s rights? It feels good to correct someone — even a hypothetical someone — who’s wrong.
There is value in corrections where corrections are due, no doubt. But as Kelly sets the record straight along the way in Marooned, he does something wholly remarkable: he doesn’t revel in it. “Chief Powhatan,” father of Pocahontas, is really Weorance Wahunsonacock. One of the Indian groups in his paramount chiefdom was called Powhatan; calling him Powhatan, or calling the territory he presided over Powhatan is incorrect. Kelly mentions this discrepancy, names the man Wahunsonacock, and gets on with the narrative. Boom. Done.
Ironically, the book’s intended purpose is to correct a fundamental misunderstanding about American’s origin story. Kelly offers Jamestown, Virginia as the true origin story for America rather than the pilgrims in Plymouth. The series of mutinies and challenges to the English gentlemen’s authority are his primary argument. Rather than the obedient, strict theocracy of Massachusetts, the American spirit first flourished in the Jamestown indentured servant, cheated out of his expectations to become a prosperous yeoman.
But I won’t give too much away. The book is told in a series of narratives based largely on the records of a half dozen literate men in the Jamestown colony in the early seventeenth century. We see John Smith (surprisingly one of history’s most interesting people — the number of adventures he had, damn. Jamestown was just one episode) fight first against his English betters and then establish his own chiefdom to rival Wahunsonacock’s. We see Stephen Hopkins and his fellow mutineers rebel against the English gentlemen, marooned in Bermuda. We see the straggled remains of the men and woman who came to Jamestown on the Company’s first three supplies get within a week of escaping back to England, only to have their hopes dashed as the new Governor, with the fourth supply, intercepts them.
Great book. Great history, great analysis, great treatment of historical correctionism. Well worth the four stars.
There is value in corrections where corrections are due, no doubt. But as Kelly sets the record straight along the way in Marooned, he does something wholly remarkable: he doesn’t revel in it. “Chief Powhatan,” father of Pocahontas, is really Weorance Wahunsonacock. One of the Indian groups in his paramount chiefdom was called Powhatan; calling him Powhatan, or calling the territory he presided over Powhatan is incorrect. Kelly mentions this discrepancy, names the man Wahunsonacock, and gets on with the narrative. Boom. Done.
Ironically, the book’s intended purpose is to correct a fundamental misunderstanding about American’s origin story. Kelly offers Jamestown, Virginia as the true origin story for America rather than the pilgrims in Plymouth. The series of mutinies and challenges to the English gentlemen’s authority are his primary argument. Rather than the obedient, strict theocracy of Massachusetts, the American spirit first flourished in the Jamestown indentured servant, cheated out of his expectations to become a prosperous yeoman.
But I won’t give too much away. The book is told in a series of narratives based largely on the records of a half dozen literate men in the Jamestown colony in the early seventeenth century. We see John Smith (surprisingly one of history’s most interesting people — the number of adventures he had, damn. Jamestown was just one episode) fight first against his English betters and then establish his own chiefdom to rival Wahunsonacock’s. We see Stephen Hopkins and his fellow mutineers rebel against the English gentlemen, marooned in Bermuda. We see the straggled remains of the men and woman who came to Jamestown on the Company’s first three supplies get within a week of escaping back to England, only to have their hopes dashed as the new Governor, with the fourth supply, intercepts them.
Great book. Great history, great analysis, great treatment of historical correctionism. Well worth the four stars.
petelefeet's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
verumsolum's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
3.5
I found this a fun, readable walkthrough of the history of the early years of England exploring and settling in the area of Jamestown, including how those people interacted with those nations and people who were already living in the area prior to European settlement.
I probably came at this in a bit different a background from most: I live about an hour's drive from Jamestown, but I grew up in Canada, so my formal education did not include much focus on Jamestown or anything else related to English exploration of and settlement in what is now the United States: what we learned of that time related mostly to the area that would become Canada.
All of that is to say that I'm not the best judge of the information Joseph Kelly includes, but I appreciated that it was engagingly told, while including many footnotes about the sources behind the story. If you're reading this for pleasure, like I was, the footnotes aren't likely to be important to you, but I almost saw each one as a gentle nudge to remind me: this is history, not a novel.
I probably came at this in a bit different a background from most: I live about an hour's drive from Jamestown, but I grew up in Canada, so my formal education did not include much focus on Jamestown or anything else related to English exploration of and settlement in what is now the United States: what we learned of that time related mostly to the area that would become Canada.
All of that is to say that I'm not the best judge of the information Joseph Kelly includes, but I appreciated that it was engagingly told, while including many footnotes about the sources behind the story. If you're reading this for pleasure, like I was, the footnotes aren't likely to be important to you, but I almost saw each one as a gentle nudge to remind me: this is history, not a novel.
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