King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict [Paperback]

Eric B. Schultz (Author), Michael J. Tougias (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000

King Philip's War--one of America's first and costliest wars--began in 1675 as an Indian raid on several farms in Plymouth Colony, but quickly escalated into a full-scale war engulfing all of southern New England.

At once an in-depth history of this pivotal war and a guide to the historical sites where the ambushes, raids, and battles took place, King Philip's War expands our understanding of American history and provides insight into the nature of colonial and ethnic wars in general. Through a careful reconstruction of events, first-person accounts, period illustrations, and maps, and by providing information on the exact locations of more than fifty battles, King Philip's War is useful as well as informative. Students of history, colonial war buffs, those interested in Native American history, and anyone who is curious about how this war affected a particular New England town, will find important insights into one of the most seminal events to shape the American mind and continent.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Now largely forgotten, the massacres of 1675 to 1676, known as King Philip's War, ended the harmonious relations that had existed between native Americans and the colonists since their arrival at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Tensions had been rising as the number of settlers grew, and the pillaging of an outlying farm by affronted young braves escalated into open hostilities. Pitched battles were fought from Rhode Island to Maine. Hundreds of English died as farmers fled and cowered behind stockades or in the few port towns. Thousands of natives were slaughtered and the rest dispersed or sold into slavery in the West Indies. The savagery resulted in the clearing of the native populations from southern New England and the unopposed expansion of the New England colonies. It also became the brutal model on which the United States came to deal with its native peoples. King Philip's War tells the story with such close attention to detail that each ambush, each burned-out farm, becomes a vivid image. The authors make abundant use of maps and photographs of old sites to enable the reader to follow the course of the war: the book forms an exhaustive guide for the armchair historian or anyone wishing to visit the monuments and battlefields today. The terror and bitterness of the period live again in the book's illustrations of old woodcuts and lithographs and in quotations from contemporary narratives. That King Philip, whose head was paraded around the streets of Plymouth in a barbarous show of triumph, was the son of the Wampanoag chief who celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims in 1621 adds to the irony and tragedy of the events, whose memory this well-researched book deservedly keeps alive. --John Stevenson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This work about the brutal 18th-century war between Indian tribes (led by a daring and skilled chief known as King Philip) is divided into three quite different parts. The first part provides a relatively concise chronological retelling of the war. The second part, organized geographically and the heart of the volume, takes readers through New England to various sites associated with the conflict. Frequent references to present-day localities make it possible to use these pages as a sort of historical guidebook. The third part offers three contemporary narratives reflecting the significance of the war on the people of the era. Useful maps assist the reader throughout. Although King Philip's War is little known today, the conflict has not been as ignored as the authors claim hereAwitness, for example, Jill Lepore's acclaimed The Name of War (LJ 3/1/98). However, this book does much to reestablish the conflict's importance for popular historical study of the area, making it especially useful for public libraries.ACharles K. Piehl, Mankato State Univ., MN
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Countryman Press (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881504831
• ISBN-13: 978-0881504835
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #398,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, November 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: King Philip's War : The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict (Hardcover)

I have read most everything written on King Philip's War in the last few years and this is by far the best. There's a brief but complete history of the war right up front, including some interesting details on pre-war New England and on the aftermath of the war. (Check out the section about the veterans!) Schultz and Tougias go out of their way to be even-handed in the description of battles; there's even a segment praising the Nipmuck's Muttawmp, perhaps the strongest military leader on either side. (He barely rates a mention in most texts.) The authors also question Canonchet's handling of the Great Swamp Fight and poke some holes in traditional descriptions of the engagement. Since I am from New England, though, I liked best the travelogue in section two. I have already visited the sites in Sudbury and Turner's Falls, and the book really brings them to life. There are several dozen illustrations and ten or more maps, and these really add to the text as well. This spring I intend to see a number of other sites, including Bloody Brook and Beer's Ambush. By contrast, Jill Lepore's book is excellent but very frustrating because it lacks a chronological history of the war. It's also written like a thesis, so the reader has to already have a good grasp of how the war unfolded in order to follow her argument. Leach's book is a classic but stops before the war ends in Maine, and gives no clue as to how to find any of the sites mentioned. (By the way, Leach praises Schultz and Tougias on the dustjacket!) Schultz and Tougias have written more the story of the war, and how to find the story. If you know nothing about King Philip's War, or want to get reacquainted with it, this should be the first text on your bookshelf. I highly recommend it.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Detailed Portrayal of Early America, January 11, 2001

By 

L. Sabin (Hudson Valley NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: King Philip's War : The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict (Hardcover)

I had high hopes for this book, and some were fulfilled.

It has some very interesting historical background of King Philip's War and good first hand accounts.

The detailed descriptions of the locales, however, were very long, sometimes overly so. And as someone who is not from New England, these passages grew tedious at times, and even nit-picky about some war-related minutiae.

However, the subject matter in general was interesting to me, and the writing was done well.

The book is really more designed for the professional archaeologist/historian than the casual history reader. But it does have a wealth of information on obscure 17th century New England. If you think you can slog through the denser parts, then I would recommend this book for those interested in American colonial history.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great History, Great Travelogue, February 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: King Philip's War : The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict (Hardcover)

I read the book. Then I read Mr. O'Keefe from Denver's review. The only thing I can think is that Mr. O'Keefe's edition was missing the first 80 pages. Those pages contain the best, most concise and "logical" history of the war available. After that the book becomes a travelogue (Mr. O'Keefe: a "collage") structured geographically that the Boston Globe raved about. All of the "detail" Mr. O'Keefe complained about allowed me to visit a half dozen of the sites that I would never have been able to find otherwise. If you want an unstructured collage beyond most amateur historians, read Lepore's book. If you want to understand King Philip's War, I would recommend this book (Schultz/Tougias) highly.