Captivating, scholarly and addictively readable... Rebecca Fraser has the rare gift of being able to marshal and communicate a mountainous quantity of often original research in such a deft and elegant manner that it never becomes indigestible or irrelevant. [...] When a sidestep outside her rigorous chronological account is required, she executes it nimbly, without breaking her stride. If she reaches a period of scanty evidence, she admits it, and her suggestions carry the conviction of expertise. Everything is rooted in provable fact, much of it new -- Sue Gaisford * Financial Times *
Rebecca Fraser tells this familiar story with wonderful immediacy; the Winslows come across not as strange characters from the distant past, but as real people with passions and anxieties familiar to us all -- Gerard De Groot * The Times *
It is engagingly written and often compelling. There is an eye for memorable detail... The later account of King Philip's war is both graphic and gripping... The author is a careful researcher, fair and level-headed. She is also an excellent painter of characters; in judging them, she looks as their deeds with contemporary mores in mind... Even if the Mayflower shelf is a crowded one, this is a book that deserves its place on it * The Economist *
[Fraser] has threaded the important historiographical innovations seamlessly into her text, paying more attention than hitherto to the experiences of early colonial women, and drawing on the lessons of ethno-history in her portrayal of Indian tribes... A brilliant combination of synthesis and original research arriving in good time for the celebration of the quincentenary of the Mayflower -- Mark Bostridge * The Spectator *
Fascinating... Rebecca Fraser commands a sprawling canvas, beginning in 1595 with the birth of Edward Winslow and ending in 1704 with the death of Peregrine White... Edward Winslow's excitement at arriving in Leiden, with its free-thinking university, is vividly captured. So, too, are the perils of the Mayflower's voyage... There is also a rich sense of the enormous possibilities offered by the New World... This is a thrilling story, admirably told -- Anthony Gardner * Tablet *
Fraser is an experienced, sensitive biographer... [She] has clearly set her sights on addressing an audience of intelligent, curious, lay people. She has written with an awareness of the powerful cultural heritage the colonial Puritans created in New England and occasionally alludes to nineteenth-century commentators on them. It is a measure of her success that, after a lifetime of teaching and writing about American history, I found her story illuminating points I had never before fully appreciated. -- Daniel Howe * The Oldie *
An intimate view of colonial life, an approachable companion to more forbidding scholarly studies * Wall Street Journal *
The Mayflower Generation makes a convincing case that the Winslows, father and son, played as important a role in New England's development as the better-known William Bradford and John Winthrop -- Virginia DeJohn Anderson * TLS *
Fraser's smooth storytelling provides a revealing look into the development of the [Plymouth] colony, the rise of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and the different outlooks on the community and the lure of land. The story of the Winslows is an effective way to experience the emotions and fears of the small band who dauntlessly sailed off to the New World * Kirkus Review *
Epic in scope and pacing, this account of survival feels intimate... The author's inclusion of indigenous history along with the struggles of women pilgrims and their importance to the community's success is both appreciated and necessary * Library Journal *
Renowned historian Fraser brings us yet another superbly written and enthralling read... she excels at showing howlandscape, religion, and politics can irreversibly transform a family and a community. Highly recommended -- Jennifer Johnson * Booklist *
Rebecca Fraser has written a superb account of the first two generations of the Winslow family of the Mayflower. Fraser's extensive research has shed new light on this interesting family and allied families. This book stands as a significant contribution to the already well documented field of Pilgrim history ... a must read for those interested in the unique beginnings of America -- Cynthia Hagar Krusell, Historian and Author of The Winslows of Careswell in Marshfield
Rebecca Fraser's exquisitely researched book seems to offer something new to learn - and wonder over - on every page, from the warm, mutually admiring friendships between some Puritans and Native Americans to the near-apocalyptic brutality of King Philip's War, and other campaigns. The Pilgrims believed that 'the world could begin afresh in America,' this gifted historian writes. As, eventually, it did. Deftly, indelibly, Fraser shows us the human cost -- Penelope Rowlands, Journalist and Author of Aaron Burr's Second Act
The author puts the reader into the period with a front-row seat as the story unfolds and captures the reader. It's a must-read for anyone interested in the Edward Winslow family and many of his contemporaries that surrounded Winslow in England, the Netherlands and came with him to New England. Fraser's attention to historical detail is excellent and enhances this riveting book! -- Judith H. Swan, Former Governor General, General Society of Mayflower Descendants
A well written and far ranging perspective on the Pilgrims and seventeenth century New England by a noted student of English history -- Francis J. Bremer, Coordinator, New England Beginnings and Author of Lay Empowerment and the Development of Puritanism
