Table of Contents

IN

About the Author

JILL LEPOREis the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer atThe New Yorker.Her books include theNew YorkTimesbest sellerThe Secret History of Wonder WomanandBook of Ages,a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

"An evocative, powerful, and troubling book about a little-known war that speaks to all wars." —The New Republic

"Brilliant. . . . Lepore's grasp of the complexities and varieties of the human beings in her drama matches that of a fine novelist. . . . This is history as it should be written."  —The Boston Globe

"Fascinating . . . rich in imagination, in moral ruminations about the meaning and justice of war."  —The New York Review of Books

“Jill Lepore has written a brilliant study of the different ways Americans have understood and told stories about one of the great conflicts of their colonial past: King Philip’s War. Writing with great grace and clarity, she offers fascinating new insights into the different ways that Indians and colonists made sense of their cultural differences.” —William Cronon, author of Changes in the Land

“The Name of War adds wonderfully rich new dimensions to the history of white-Indian relations in the United States: sharp focus, a rich sense of context, anticipations of an comparisons with subsequent American wars. This is a profound and rewarding book that illuminates the social psychology of war in the American experience.” —Michael Kammen, author of Mystic Chords of Memory

“Jill Lepore shows how language shaped as well as reflected the horror we know as ‘King Philip's War.’ Finding Algonquin voices within, behind, and beside the classic English narratives, she forces new engagement with the evasions, celebrations, and violence of New England history.” —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of A Midwife's Tale

Shortly before his death in 1675, John Sassamon warned the governor of Plymouth Colony that Philip, a Wampanoag Indian leader, was about to attack English settlers. When Sassamon was found dead, indications pointed to murder. Three Wampanoag Indians were tried, convicted, and executed. Days later, Philip and his followers began attacking and destroying one English settlement after another. Colonial armies retaliated, killing Indian warriors on the battlefield and their families in the villages. Rather than providing a battle-by-battle description, Lepore (history, Boston Univ.) presents the war through the diaries, books, articles, and dramas written about it. Her major theme is that wars and their histories cannot be separated. Wars generate their own narratives, serving to define the geographical, political, cultural, and national boundaries between warring peoples. A unique approach to historical interpretation, this book will appeal to academic libraries and those that specialize in early American history. (Illustrations not seen.)‘Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora

Winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

"An evocative, powerful, and troubling book about a little-known war that speaks to all wars." -The New Republic

"Brilliant. . . . Lepore's grasp of the complexities and varieties of the human beings in her drama matches that of a fine novelist. . . . This is history as it should be written." -The Boston Globe

"Fascinating . . . rich in imagination, in moral ruminations about the meaning and justice of war." -The New York Review of Books

"Jill Lepore has written a brilliant study of the different ways Americans have understood and told stories about one of the great conflicts of their colonial past: King Philip's War. Writing with great grace and clarity, she offers fascinating new insights into the different ways that Indians and colonists made sense of their cultural differences." -William Cronon, author of Changes in the Land

"The Name of War adds wonderfully rich new dimensions to the history of white-Indian relations in the United States: sharp focus, a rich sense of context, anticipations of an comparisons with subsequent American wars. This is a profound and rewarding book that illuminates the social psychology of war in the American experience." -Michael Kammen, author of Mystic Chords of Memory

"Jill Lepore shows how language shaped as well as reflected the horror we know as 'King Philip's War.' Finding Algonquin voices within, behind, and beside the classic English narratives, she forces new engagement with the evasions, celebrations, and violence of New England history." -Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of A Midwife's Tale