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early American historians who get that seasonal call to describe the event and its significance. Here once again the discussion of the Pilgrims has moved far beyond the documentary evidence and immediate seventeenth-century context. In addition to his deep familiarity with the primary documents, Bangs has experience with visual and material culture. He is currently director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum and once was chief curator of the Plimoth Plantation, but his interest in visual arts actually precedes his work on the Pilgrims. He began as a scholar of art in early modern Leiden. He brings this background to bear with effect in several essays. One discusses the imaginative efforts to recreate the architecture of early seventeenth-century Plymouth: something for which little direct evidence exists. Two others, one on three paintings and another on the history of commemoration, poke holes in American exceptionalism by showing the remarkable degree to which the visual representations of the Pilgrims resemble aspects of Dutch art and culture. It is difficult to come up with an overall argument for such a sprawling assortment of essays as this. However, a few points stand out. First, Bangs insists that the Pilgrims’ religious ideals be taken seriously—and understood in their contemporary context. His documentation of the range of religious texts they brought over with them demonstrates just how closely engaged they were with the religious literature of their time. Second, they, or at least their elite, were cosmopolitan in outlook, drawing on their knowledge of Dutch history, law, and culture as well as their English heritage. The section discussing Dutch toleration and the assistance the Dutch Republic gave to the Swiss and German Mennonites in the late seventeenth century, before they migrated to Pennsylvania, might seem off topic here but it does suggest how Bangs sees Plymouth’s story as part of a broader history of Protestant radicalism and toleration. Third, for many people the real significance of the colony lies more in its presumed influence on modern American culture than its actual seventeenth-century history. Finally, despite the long tradition of claiming that all that can be said about Plymouth colony has already been said, he demonstrates time and again that there is more to say. This book is not a thorough account of the colony’s full history; Bangs believes that work still needs to be written. It is, however, a thorough foundation for whoever decides to write that account.