The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity

• Author: Major Matthew J. Mccormack2
• Pages: 05

2004] BOOK REVIEWS 155

THE NAME OF WAR: KING PHILIP'S WAR AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN IDENTITY1

MAJOR MATTHEW J. MCCORMACK2

"When I came to the place, i found an house burnt downe, and six persons killed, and three of the same family could not be found. An old Man and Woman were halfe in, and halfe out of the house neer halfe burnt. Their owne Son was shot through the body, and also his head dashed in pieces. This young mans Wife was dead, her head skined." The young woman . . . "was bigg with Child," and two of her children, "haveing their heads dashed in pieces," were found "laid by one another with their bellys to the ground, and an Oake planke laid upon their backs." The three missing family members . . . had been taken captive.3

Part murder mystery, part historical inquiry, and part anthropological thesis, The Name of War examines the colonial era war between New England Indian tribes and colonists, known as King Philip's War.4 The author, Jill Lepore,5 theorizes that King Philip's War was caused in part by the colonists' attempt to subjugate the Indians culturally, not only out of a desire to Christianize them, but also because of the colonists' own fear of

1. JILL LEPORE, THE NAME OF WAR: KING PHILIP'S WAR AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN

   IDENTITY (1999).

2. United States Marine Corps. Written while assigned as a student in the 52d Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, U.S. Army, Charlottesville, Virginia.

3. LEPORE, supra note 1, at 74-75 (quoting an unabridged letter from George Ingersol to Leif Augur (Sept. 10, 1675)).

4. King Philip's War was a bloody struggle between many, although not all, of the New England Indian tribes and the New England colonists. Id. at 69-121. The war lasted fourteen months, from the early summer of 1675 to the late summer of 1676. Id. at xxvxxviii. Although the stakes were high for both sides, the Indians' early successes nearly exterminated the colonial presence in New England. Id. at 69-121. "In proportion to population, [King Philip's War] inflicted greater casualties than any other war in American history." Id. at xi.

5. Jill Lepore currently teaches history at Boston University. Id. at Pre-Title Page. She previously taught history at the University of California, San Diego, from 1995 to 1996, and served as a fellow at the Charles Warren Center, Harvard University, from 1996 to 1997. Id. Jill Lepore received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University, Master of Arts degree from University of Michigan, and Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale University. Id.

   losing their Christian souls and Englishness.6 Colonists believed the abhorrent influence of Indian culture had corrupted their Englishness.7

   To show how King Philip's War affected the American identity, Lepore recounts how contemporary authors described the war and how those descriptions influenced later American generations.8 Lepore analyzes the injuries caused by King Philip's War and history's interpretation of those injuries. She theorizes "the acts of war generate acts of narration, and that both types of acts are often joined in a common purpose: defining the geographical, political, cultural, and sometimes racial and national boundaries between peoples."9 Lepore ultimately suggests the political and cultural boundaries conceived during King Philip's War shaped the American identity.10

   Lepore organizes her thesis by buttressing the four parts of her anal-ysis-Language, War, Bondage, and Memory-between a lengthy introduction and prologue, and an epilogue. The introduction and prologue lay out her analytical framework,11 while the epilogue ties her thesis to the plight of Indians who live in New England today.12 Between these two ends, Part I "Language"13 and Part II "War"14 establish the core of Lepore's thesis and propel that thesis with her most thought provoking analysis. In contrast, Part III "Bondage"15 and Part IV "Memory"16 meander to some degree and provide only ancillary support for the thesis established in Parts I and II.

   Lepore's four-part analysis begins in Part I "Language" by explaining the linguistic underpinnings of contemporary reporting on the war.17 Lepore argues that language was the primary tool used to influence the colonists' self-perception and later views about the war.18 Colonists, the sole recorders of the war's written history, tried to minimize the perception of

6. Id. at 5-7, 11.

7. Id.

8. Id. at xxii-xxiii.

9. Id. at x.

10. Id. at iv.

11. Id. at ix-xxviii, 1-18.

12. Id. at 227-40.

13. Id. at 19-68.

14. Id. at 69-121.

15. Id. at 123-72.

16. Id. at 171-226.

17. Id. at 19-68.

18. Id. at 67-68.

    their own cruelty by manipulating the language they used to describe the war.19 The colonists tried to distinguish their own violence from both the savagery of their Indian neighbors and the cruelty of their European brethren, the Spanish, during their earlier conquest over Indians in more southern parts of the New World.20 In a war in which New England colonists killed Indian women and children with the same fervor as the Indians employed against colonial...