In the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin evoked a familiar metaphor for American exceptionalism -- the "city on a hill," that she ascribed to the sainted Ronald Reagan:
We are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights.
As Palin presumably is unaware, the "city on a hill" thing is not 20th-century GOP political rhetoric, but a phrase that goes back almost 400 years to John Winthrop, the founder/leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Another Sarah, Sarah Vowell, an author and regular contributor to "This American Life," knows a good bit more about where this phrase came from.
Since the smart Sarah has written a fascinating book, "The Wordy Shipmates," about the early-17th-century Massachusetts Puritans, and their mixed legacy.
A sort-of book review of a great read, below.
"The Wordy Shipmates" combines a scrupulously accurate retelling of the early history of the 17th-century Massachusetts Bay Colony with Vowell's 21st-century enlightened sense of humor and irony.
Vowell did basic historical research for the book, reading primary sources in their original state at the Massachusetts Historical Society, and quoting liberally from such sources throughout the book.
As someone who makes her living with words, and writing quirkily about American history, Vowell is impressed by the voluminous writings of the Puritans, especially John Winthrop, who coined the "city on a hill" in his sermon "A Model of Christian Charity."
So she wrote a history book, with wry comments and diversions, about Winthrop and the wars, religious controversies, and other problems that beset the Puritans as they sought to establish, and expand, their hold on what came to be known as New England.
Why? Because:
The most important reason that I am concentrating on Winthrop and his shipmates in the 1630s is that the country I live in is haunted by the Puritans' vision of themselves as God's chosen people.
snip
The most ironic and entertaining example of that mind-set is the Massachusetts Bay Colony's official seal. The seal, which the Winthrop fleet brought with them from England, pictures an Indian in a loincloth (provided in the book) holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. Words are coming out of his mouth. The Indian says, "Come over and help us."
That is really what it says.
The worldview behind that motto -- we're here to help, whether you want our help or not -- is the Massachusetts Puritans' most enduring bequest to the future United States.
Not surprisingly, Palin was wrong about the tolerance and equal rights bits, then and now.
Vowell recounts how the Puritans banished Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson to what became Rhode Island because they would not tolerate religious dissent.
She thoroughly outlines the theological differences that led to Williams and Hutchinson being exiled, and, as you might expect, roots for the dissenters:
I wish I didn't understand why Hutchinson risks damning herself to exile and excommunication just for the thrill of shooting off her mouth and making other people listen up.
But this here book is evidence that I have this same confrontational, chatty bent myself.
I got my first radio job when I was 18 years old, and I've been yakking on air or in print ever since.
Hutchinson is about to have her life -- and her poor family's -- turned upside down just so she can indulge in the sort of smart-alecky diatribe for which I've gotten paid for the last 20 years.
Vowell also tells the story of the Pequot War, and the Mystic Fort Massacre, that opened up Connecticut to English/Puritan settlement.
As an Irish-American, I was pleased to read that Vowell connected the fiery mass murder of hundreds of Pequot women and children at Mystic with the decade-later Puritan war crime in the Irish town of Drogheda, where future Puritan dictator Oliver Cromwell burned hundreds of Irish women and children alive.
Vowell accurately calls Mystic and Drogheda holocausts, in the pre-Nazi understanding of the word.
And she noted that Puritan war criminals in Ireland achieved the same result as at Mystic, terrifying Pequots/Irish who heard of the remarkable barbarism of the English into submission, winning widespread acclaim at home, and stealing lots of land.
Doing on-the-ground research, Vowell toured the Plimoth Plantation tourist trap, and checked out the other side of the story at the Pequot Museum near the Foxwoods gambling resort.
Here's her view of the other Connecticut Indian casino Mohegan Sun:
It looks like it was designed by Ralph Lauren, Bugsy Siegel and Willy Wonka after a night of peyote. That is to say I kind of like it.
Another humorous diversion is her discussion of the Puritans in popular culture, especially TV sitcoms of her youth like "Happy Days" and "The Brady Bunch." There's an almost verbatim version, in Vowell's inimitable voice, on this "This American Life."
And she has some fun with St. Ronald:
Like a hostess dusting off her gravy boat come Thanksgiving, Ronald Reagan would trot out Winthrop's image of a city on a hill on special occasions throughout his political career.
snip
Reagan always brightened Winthrop's sound bite with the adjective "shining." The man was host of TV's "General Electric Theater" for eight years, so it stands to reason he knew from luminosity.
So, as is so often said here, though this time without a link, go read the whole thing.
And, if you can, buy "The Wordy Shipmates" from an independent bookstore.
