Most family historians would be thrilled to have an ancestor figure prominently in a bestseller like Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. But not Judith Church Tydings, whose letter to the editor of the Washington Post appears in today's paper.
As a descendant of militia captain Benjamin Church, one of the two main historical figures in the book, I wish to stress the unreliability of my ancestor's account of King Philip's War, upon which Mr. Philbrick relied heavily. [Link]

“Entertaining Passages” paints Church not only as the hero of every battle he fought but as the Puritans’ voice of reason and restraint, as the man of conscience who attempts, in vain, to halt every atrocity: when his Mohegan allies want to torment a captured Nipmuck with fire and knives, Church “interceded and prevailed for his escaping torture”; in the Great Swamp Fight, Church, badly injured, valiantly hobbles to his commanding officer and begs him to stop the attack, only to be rebuffed. [Link]I should note that, at the time of these events, my own ancestor, Samuel Dunham, was at home working on the drinking habit that in 1681 would get him excommunicated from the First Church of Plymouth. I have not read Philbrick's book, but assume that Samuel's name is not in the index.

I have read the book, and it was excellent. Surely, the author consulted more than a self-serving memoir by Church's son.
And no, I'm afraid your drunken son of a Dunham wasn't in the index. Although my randy 9th great-grandfather Peregrine White was!
Cheers -- Randy