Choice Review
Although the story of Thanksgiving's shift from a regional to a national holiday is chronicled in essays tucked into such general considerations of holidays as We Are What We Celebrate, edited by Amitai Etzioni and Jared Bloom (CH, Jul'05, 42-6565); All Around the Year, by Jack Santino (1994); and Red, White, and Blue Letter Days, by Matthew Dennis (CH, Mar'03, 40-4192), Baker shows that the subject of Thanksgiving is worthy of book-length treatment. Mining a panoply of documentary evidence from Colonial-era diary accounts and community proclamations to commercial advertisements and film productions, Baker (former director of research at Plimoth Plantation) provides a richly detailed study of the curious rise of Thanksgiving as an American icon. As a historian, Baker is particularly interested in separating the facts of Thanksgiving's origin from socially constructed fictions. To his credit, rather than dismissing the national mythology of Thanksgiving, he analyzes the implications of the various emergent narratives and debates through time to confront the experience of colonialism, need for national ancestors, and formation of a national celebration of unity in a diverse country. Well written and nicely illustrated, this most extensive treatment of Thanksgiving's cultural history to date is a significant contribution to American studies. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. S. J. Bronner Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Campus
Library Journal Review
Baker has incorporated all the available research on Thanksgiving and enriched it with his unparalleled access to original sources as the former director of research at Plimoth Plantation. Most appealing about this book is that it has been produced by an expert on the topic, and one who is also a Plymouth, MA, native. He shows us how Thanksgiving is seen through each generation's reality, having morphed from a holiday for pilgrim hats and turkeys to a cause for Native American protests to a holy day to several ancient holidays combined and a full-scale orgy of food and football. Thanksgiving is not the holiday you think it is and will not be the holiday you know now in 100 years, but it can be whatever holiday you need. There is now a desire to make it an international holiday-Who knows? VERDICT This is destined to become the accepted text for research on the history and myth of this most American holiday, and it will be an enjoyable, fascinating read both for students and for anyone looking for a good story.-Suzanne Lay, Perry H.S., GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
