Book review: The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell considers the Puritans, the early history of New England, and their impact upon the modern United States. Vowell's style is amusing, digressive, and sprinkled with pop-culture references to The Brady Bunch, but it's also a serious consideration of their contradictions. John Winthrop emphasized Christian charity and viewing society as a brotherhood, yet he could also sentence a man to have his ears cut off for "invectives against our churches and government" and gloat over Anne Hutchinson's conviction and subsequent misfortunes. Roger Williams's religious views were strict and inflexible -- "visible saints" should not pray in sight of less exalted people, which included Willams's wife and children -- but he also made the first argument that church and state should be kept separate. Vowell takes a light tone, but the book tackles issues that are serious, deep, and fundamental to the government and mindset of the US.