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Inside: Message From the President page 2 The Least Dangerous Branch Mass page 5 Recent Grants page 10 Humanities A Publication of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Spring 2007 FALL SYMPOSIUM Talking Turkey VIEWABLE ON LINE A conversation with the author of Mayflower The Foundation's 2006 symposium, The Least Dangerous Branch? Liberty, Justice, and the United States Supreme Court, In December 2006 the New From the beginning of my brought a distinguished group of legal scholars, York Times chose Nathaniel research, I was careful to jurists, and journalists together for a series of Philbrick’s Mayflower: A Story contextualize his account timely and provocative conversations at of Courage, Community, and with other published and Boston College on October 21. Participants War as one of the ten best books unpublished sources from the included David Greenberg, Renee Landers, of the year. This spring Penguin war, including histories by Richard Posner, Jeffrey Rosen, Akhil will publish both a paperback Hubbard and Mather; nar- Reed Amar, Marci Hamilton, Mary-Rose edition of Mayflower and The ratives by Mary Rowlandson, Papandrea, Lincoln Caplan, Jack Goldsmith, Mayflower Papers: Selected Thomas Wheeler, and Anthony Lewis, Dahlia Lithwick, and Writings of Colonial New others; and letters from a Randall Kennedy. The entire symposium England, edited by Nathaniel wide variety of correspon- can be viewed on line (in three 45-minute and his father Thomas Philbrick. dents, including William sessions) at frontrow.bc.edu. Bradford, Jr., who writes The Foundation’s Associate in detail about Church in Director, Ellen K. Rothman, a little-known July 1676 BIG SCREEN, SMALL SCREEN interviewed Philbrick from his letter to John Cotton. home on Nantucket by e-mail. What impressed me was Peter Miller’s film Sacco and Vanzetti, how even those who clearly Ellen K. Rothman: The funded in part by the Massachusetts didn’t like Church very book has been very popu- Foundation for the Humanities, will much (such as Bradford) lar among general readers. have a theatrical release in New York in corroborated his account. March and Los Angeles in April. MFH Every other person on the beach last summer co-sponsored two SRO screenings of the was reading it. You are a gifted storyteller, but EKR: What about the fact that that Church’s film in August and September of 2006 and there must be something more that accounts for narrative appeared 40 years after the conflict as another seven screenings at the Boston this. There is no cannibalism here as there is in filtered through his son? Museum of Fine Arts in January. your previous book, In the Heart of the Sea. What do you think it is? NP: Church’s narrative is much more than the untrustworthy “as told to” ramblings of an old Nathaniel Philbrick: Over the last few years, man. As he explains in a foreword to his book, there has been a tremendous interest in the the narrative was composed with the help of his Founding Fathers. I think Mayflower may have field notes from the war. As a result, there is a appealed to many of those readers. But I also specificity and level of detail that is unmatched think Mayflower is, in many ways, a kind of in any other narrative from the conflict. It’s Trojan Horse—it takes the reader who might be also one of the few accounts we have from a looking for an inspirational book about the participant in the actual fighting, and Church beginning of America to a very different place. was no ordinary participant: he was there at the It’s hardly a feel-good book about the past, beginning in Swansea, at the Great Swamp Fight, and I have been genuinely surprised by and at the death of Philip in Mount Hope. Yes, Sacco and Vanzetti, Art by Ben Shahn © Estate of its popularity. Church’s narrative was written decades after the Ben Shahn, licensed by VAGA, New York, NY events it describes, but so was Thomas Nickerson’s EKR: Was Mayflower always the title you had account of the sinking of the Essex, the event at in mind? It probably accounts in part for the Front Wards, Back Wards, a film about the the center of my earlier book In the Heart of the Fernald Center, formerly the Fernald State “Trojan Horse” effect but I wonder if you had any Sea. With that book I did not uncritically accept School for the Feeble-Minded, will air on reluctance about using it? After all, the book, as Nickerson as a source; I examined his narrative in WGBH-TV and other public television the subtitle (A Story of Courage, Community, and the context of the existing evidence, just as I did stations in May. Produced and directed War) makes clear, isn’t really about the Mayflower. by William Rogers with partial funding with Church’s account of King Philip’s War. from the Massachusetts Foundation for the NP: Mayflower was the book’s working title from EKR: Some native readers and scholars of Native Humanities, the one-hour documentary the start, although I must admit to having concerns explores the history of the first public facility American history have faulted you for not consulting about it. In the end, I couldn’t come up with a in the state and in the nation for people modern-day Native oral traditions to counter the better alternative so we went with Mayflower. racist biases contained in seventeenth-century EKR: The book has been widely praised, but it has English sources. How did you approach what you also drawn fire from some quarters. I’m thinking of knew would be a problem with the inevitable Harvard historian Jill Lepore’s review [published in biases in the sources you were using? the April 24, 2006 New Yorker]. Did you expect to NP: Prior to beginning work on Mayflower, I spent come in for criticism? What is your response to it? four years researching and writing Abram’s Eyes NP: Jill Lepore’s chief criticism of Mayflower was that (1998), a book about the Native legacy of my I based my account of King Philip’s War on the nar- adopted home, Nantucket Island. While working Five Simpletons, Clinical photograph from the rative of Benjamin Church, which she dismissed as on that book, I consulted Wampanoags throughout Fernald Institution, circa 1920. Courtesy of unreliable since it was written with the assistance of southeastern Massachusetts, in particular the late The Massachusetts Archive his son well after the war. Church is a major source Russell Gardner, who was then the Wampanoag tribal historian. That experience gave me a deep Foundation News continued on page 4. in my book, but he is by no means the only source. Talking Turkey continued on page 3. Message From the President Main Office 66 Bridge Street am deeply honored to have been elected President Participating in community life, Northampton, MA 01060 (413) 584-8440 Fax (413) 584-8454 of the Board of the Massachusetts Foundation for engaging in public discussion and www.mfh.org the Humanities. It is an organization whose mission Metro Boston Office I 101 Walnut Street I truly cherish, whose staff and fellow board members I debate, learning more about who we Watertown, MA 02472 respect and admire, and whose constituents—the residents (617) 923-1678 Fax (617) 923-8426 of the Commonwealth—I feel fortunate to serve. Most of are and what defines us–these are STAFF you reading this are already aware of the Foundation’s Main Office, Northampton many achievements and ongoing activities, but I think important forms of civic engagement David Tebaldi Executive Director the times ahead present important new challenges and [email protected] with them opportunities for involvement. that the Foundation facilitates Kristin O’Connell Assistant Director The Commonwealth marked a turning point with the throughout the year, across [email protected] recent election. Although the election of our first Anne Rogers African American governor is certainly an important the Commonwealth. Systems Manager [email protected] event, it is the means by which that election took place John Sieracki and the spirit of the new administration that hold the most As regular readers of Mass Humanities may recall, fellow Director of Development promise for those interested in the public humanities. The board member Frank Sousa, Director of the Center for [email protected] campaign itself and the governor’s continuing interest in Portuguese Studies and Culture at UMass/Dartmouth, Hayley Wood Humanities Programs Director civic engagement dovetail perfectly with the Foundation’s MFH Executive Director David Tebaldi, and I were [email protected] mission to use the humanities to enhance and improve fortunate enough to visit Portugal last summer. We Metro Boston Office civic life in Massachusetts. were invited to Lisbon by the Luso-American Foundation Ellen K. Rothman to explore possible ways of collaborating on projects Associate Director Of course we at the Foundation have long recognized that would highlight contributions to the humanities by [email protected] the need for and benefits of a fully engaged citizenry. the Commonwealth’s increasingly dynamic Portuguese- Zachary Howard We know that voting is a critical and necessary, but not Administrative/Program Assistant speaking community and enhance that community’s [email protected] sufficient, measure of that involvement. Participating civic engagement. Tentative plans call for a major BOARD OF DIRECTORS in community life, engaging in public discussion and symposium on contemporary Portuguese-American President debate, learning more about who we are and what defines literature this fall, followed by a series of mini-symposia David J.
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