The Name Of War
The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, is a book by Jill Lepore. The Phi Beta Society returned home as the victor of the Emerson Award early in 1998 discussing the agonizing racial war of 1675.
The book tells the story of King Philips War that initiated in New England, between the colonists and Indians. The genocides were a major event of the war and were not limited to one side of the two parties. They were horrific, and as a result became known the bloodiest war in US history.
When Did The War Begin
The war began when the leader Philip, led attacks on the English settlements in Plymouth camp. The result of the war was a loose federation of the Algonquians being pitted in contradiction of a partnership of the migrants. It seems that both sides had pursed the war without restraint. They killed everyone they could lay their hands on and tortured their captives and mutilated the dead. These horrific incidents ended in 1976 August after Philips death.
Result of the war was a colonist need to defend them against the accusation that they were barbarians. However in the book the author, the author makes it clear that the war lead to a rigid line being draw between cultures; a line that has previously been blurry.
In the Kirkus review the critic states that the author describes more than the “usual atrocities” as she also describes the confusion in identity, as both sides adopted parts of the others culture. By doing so she recognized how this led to them both viewing the other as savages, and the result this had in both the past and the present. As a result he calls the book “a superb study” that is both “Vivid and thoughtful”.
She argued that surge of literature produced, regarding the war, led to the feelings and in turn the hostility between the Indians and the Anglos being strengthened. She argues that the memory of the war has been used to justify Indian removal. It has also inspired a deep need for the Indians to preserve and protect their culture. In a New York Times article, the writer stated that Lepore understood that “the struggles over language after the war were as important as the war itself. “ Through her book, Lepore shows the reader that our view of the past is just as vital as the event themselves; and how both factors have an important effect.
It also states that she was not simply interested in the names of individuals but rather “descriptive terms that the belligerents attached to themselves, to one another and to events” and as such the result that they had on the future associations.