A Man Most Driven: Captain John Smith, Pocahontas and the Founding of America

This fascinating story of John Smith’s life, highlighting but by no means limited to his role in the colony at Jamestown, is a spell-binding read. Firstbrook is a fine writer who keeps the story moving, illuminating a crucial period of English and early American colonial history via this biography of Smith.

This is a great and valuable read for anyone, but as an author, researcher, and historian myself, I absolutely loved it. And greatly appreciate all the hard, thoughtful, thorough, and fascinating work done by Firstbrook. Even though I had to wince through a few gruesome (but very real) events. Wow, should we value the sacrifices of those early settlers of America! As a documentary type of fellow, Firstbrook did his own out-of-the-way traveling to see just how much of the legendary and almost mythical John Smith's story he could verify. You may well be surprised. I now have a much, much clearer view of the deservedly famous Captain Smith, as well as a broader understanding of Europe, England, and America in the late 16th and early 17th Centuries. This is no dry history. This is an amazing and entertaining story, told well, and well documented. Though my own research leads me to believe the author fell down a notch on the Squanto kidnapping scenario (which is due to Sir Ferdinando Gorges' slightly faulty memory many years after the fact), I would require this book as reading in every high school.

I was particularly interested in this biography of Captain John Smith as he is one of my ancestors. However I recommend this account to anyone interested in lfe in the late 1500s, early 1600s. Smith led a swashbuckling life, following the tenets of Nicolo Machiavelli and many times came close to a horrible death, but his ability to bounce back was almost in the nature of a comic book character who is flattened but springs back to life again. This book is an insight into the very early attempts to establish a British civilisation in a new world without the class system that Smith despised and resented. As the writer notes, Smith was the first true believer in the American Dream. I thoroughly recommend this book to those who love a great adventure, are fascinated by history and take the side of those who have had to strive twice as hard for recognition as those who were born in to privilege.

I found this book to be very interesting. It could be a bit confusing at times as the writer tends to skip back and forth some. Overall, I would recommend reading this book.

Well written and easy to follow

This book is an important corrective to the legacy of John Smith, English explorer, soldier, privateer, map maker, writer, and survivor extraordinaire. John Smith almost single-handedly held the Jamestown settlement together in the first two-plus years after its 1607 founding. His skillful interactions with the various tribes of Native Americans combined with his innate survival instincts, prodigious work ethic, and self-confidence kept the settlement from total collapse. A truculent man to be sure, this low-born Englishman rubbed the Jamestown English "gentlemen" leaders the wrong way. But there was a method to his disciplined ways and when the odds were stacked against the colonists, these same gentlemen (the ones who hadn't perished) deferred to Captain Smith in all things.Firstbrook has written a well-written, fast-paced, fascinating biography on this complex man. Historians, old and new, have taken potshots at John Smith for various reasons. Firstbrook explains that many of Smith's claims were never refuted by witnesses, who had ample opportunity to do so. Firstbrook elucidates these criticisms and offers cogent research that supports many of the claims made by Smith in his voluminous writings. Smith was a braggart at times, but that doesn't mean he wasn't truthful about his experiences. I defy any scholar to find any autobiographical account that does not contain some inaccuracies and distortions and Smith's record contains these elements as well. But, on the whole, John Smith's scribblings about his life and his Jamestown experiences appear to be truthful in most respects, according to Firstbrook.If you are looking for one book on John Smith and the early days of the Jamestown settlement, A Man Most Driven: Captain John Smith, Pocahontas and the Founding of America is the one to read. Aficionados of early American history and anyone who loves a good yarn about an amazing historical figure will enjoy this book.

'A Man Most Driven' is a brilliant and detailed account of Smiths life. From Willoughby to Werowocomoco, via Eastern Europe and back to England again, Peter Firstbrook has left no stone unturned in order to bring Smiths story to life. I really appreciated how Peter Firstbrook has used other events around the time of John Smith to verify key, and sometimes questionable, episodes in Smiths life. I also appreciated that the author has visited sites of significance in Europe and America, and included his own photos. This all helps to paint a really vivid picture of Smiths travels. This is the book about Captain John Smith that I have been waiting for. A must read for anyone wanting to learn more about Captain John Smith.

The subject of this book is very interesting and it is well researched. It gives a fascinating insight into life of that period.Although, for me the academic nature of the writing made it difficult to get into and ultimately I did not finish the book. There were too many side notes on the researching that went into the book, local topography etc. which got in the way of John Smith's story.

A real adventure yarn of this larger-than-life character. Occasional maps help and the enthusiasm with which the author relates his tale is infectious.

An interesting book, not an obvious biography, but was he a swashbuckler of his day.

another excellent book