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The Seeds Planted Generations Ago

Puritans drinking from pewter mugs
Puritans drinking from pewter mugs

Hello from the High Plains 2025 Radio Reader’s Book Club. I hope you’ll join us this Spring in reading and discussing four books grouped under the title “Humor Me.” I’ll be leading discussion of Sara Vowell’s 2009 best seller The Wordy Shipmates. My name is Charles Jones, I’m the retired Director of the KU Public Management Center and author of the 2022 Kansas novel The Illusion of Simple.

So, what is the national character of the United States and how did it take form?

This is the fundamental question explored by our author Sarah Vowell. You may recall Sarah from her many pieces on This American Life, and earlier books such as Assassination Vacation and Take the Cannoli, Stories From the New World.

In these times of political polarization and diminished confidence in so many foundational institutions, delving into national character can sound more daunting than humorous. And make no mistake, this book is serious reading. But it is leavened by the author’s clever prose, her light touch, her highlights of “believe-it-or-not” characters and events, and most of all, her love of this country and its aspirations.

The tension in the book is that the hopes and actualities of the American story are sometimes hard to reconcile.

Take, for example, the nation’s historical and enduring ambivalence about authority. We are a people who depend upon governmental functions such as the police and courts, regulated markets, transportation, national defense, and free and fair elections. We are also a people who bridle at almost anything that limits our personal freedom or taxes our resources.

Where did this duality begin?

According to Vowell, one might well consider the colonialist’s view of Fifth Commandment: honor thy father and mother.

For some Pilgrims, that commandment extended beyond parents and included all manner of other authorities, such as the church and state. By and large, the Massachusetts Bay Colony maintained its affiliation with the Church of England and their loyalty to the crown. Rather than fleeing religious persecution, they saw the New World, according to Vowell, as free land to plow and indigenous souls to save.

Other Pilgrims did feel religious persecution, often by that very same Church of England. They rejected its structure and hierarchy, its priesthood and liturgy as impediments to an individual relationship with God.

Over time, these different religious worldviews took forms far beyond polite debate. As recounted by Vowell, there was political upheaval, prohibitions on public speech and assembly, punishments, banishing, and the formation of about as many settlements as there were stripes of faith.

No wonder We the People remain so torn on issues of faith, freedom, and governance.

As a kid in school I recall history lessons on this nation’s colonial era. Names like John Winthrop and Roger Williams. Places like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland. I found the them and the subject matter rather dreary and irrelevant to life as I saw it.

That was then and this is now. In these later years of my life, and with the help of a fine author, my perspective has changed. Sarah Vowell helps me see that who we are, individually and collectively, is heavily drawn from where we came from, from seeds planted generations and even centuries ago. And rather than dreary, Vowell’s lessons are illuminating: closely researched, beautifully presented, thoughtfully analyzed, and sprinkled with humor.

Take a look at The Word Shipmates, and join us in High Plains 2025 Radio Reader’s Book Club.

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