Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I found this book to be an excellent resource because it goes beyond providing battle details to providing the historical context of the war.

Few people have even heard of this war, and yet the causes of our Revolutionary War can be traced directly back to the outcome of King Philip's war, making this war very important to American history.

This war played a pivotal role in American history, though few people know about it.

When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, they immediately developed a friendly relationship with the Wampanoag Indians, who traded skins and furs for European manufactured goods.

Problems arose in the 1660s. There was a generational change, signaled by the death of the chief of the Wampanoag, who was replaced by his son, nicknamed King Philip by the colonists. And there was a financial crisis, caused by changes in style among European women, who no longer wanted to purchase skins and furs. One thing led to another, and an extremely violent and brutal war broke out in 1675.

The outcome of this war was that the colonists, who formerly were completely independent of the English Crown, now had to pay taxes to the Crown in return for the Crown's protection against future Indian attacks. The colonists accepted this arrangement because they thought they had to to survive, but by the 1760s they were no longer interested, leading to the Revolutionary War.

This book provides many of the context details that help the reader understand the importance of this war to the entire panorama of American history.

Indians have been gone from Masachusetts for so long now that their mere presence has fallen out of the public imagination (everywhere except in Massachusetts I suppose). This book brings you back to a time long before the "cowboys and Indians" era when the American West was won. A time when there were still very few English settlers in America, and Indians lived all the way to the East Coast beaches.

King Philip's war was the first major conflict between English settlers in America and the native Indians -- just one generation after the Pilgrim's landed at Plymouth. This book claims the war set the tone for all future conflicts with the Indians, right through the settling of the West.

The book is organized into three sections: a general summary of the war, a long (and tedious) retelling of the war over and over and over again as regional conflicts, and excerpts from three eye-witness diaries.

If you live in the Northeast or are an avid history buff looking for every minor detail of the conflict, the middle of the book will fascinate you. But if you don't live there, the second section becomes very tedious. The authors are trying to give history buffs locations of every battle and skirmish. But unless you care to follow the Mapquest-like directions, the retellings are pointless. Here's a sample, "However, once away from the canal, Robbins picked up the chase along Bournedale Road to Head of Bay Road, into Wareham on Red Brook Road, passing along Route 6 to Elm Street." There are paragraphs full of that stuff!

If this book contained just the first and last secton, I would have given it 5 stars. Part I is a 71 page summary of the entire war. Part III contains short, heavily redacted excerpts from three eye-witness accounts of the war. I would have liked to see more of this.

The book does go a little overboard trying not to be too harsh on the Indians, and pointing out the insensitivities of the English. Only in the diaries do you get a feel for just how savage the Indians could be. The rest of the book certainly points out how treacherous the English were.

All in all the book really is worth it if you're at all interested in King Philip's War.

I was absolutely amazed to read about the scope of this war, the high ratio of deaths to population, and the incredible impact it had on subsequent events here in New England and ultimately in the way we caucasians treated native americans all over North America. Though I do not read a lot of straight history, this story is so well written that it was a delight to read. It is rich in detail but is not heavy and tends to draw the reader (or me, at least) along. I strongly recommend this book for all ages teen-age and older.

This wonderful book not only tells the stroy of King Philip's War with accuracy and detail, it also provides an excellent guide to the various sites throughout New England where key events in the war's history occurred. These are not the typical sites you'll find in Fodor's or at the chamber of commerce, but they provide insight into a (shamefully) forgotten but important period of American history. Take it along when you take your next trip to New England, and on your way to Lexington & Concord, make sure you visit a few sites form an earlier -- and equally pivotal-- American war.

This book is one of those rarities that can delight passionate history buffs, professional historians, serious field explorers, and armchair travelelers alike. The authors have skillfully drawn on nearly every worthwhile source on King Philip's War to create a fascinating and readable text. What's really great, though, is the photos, maps, and place descriptions. You might live over 350 years later and most of a continent away but they still give you a strong sense of "being there" during one of the greatest white-Indian showdowns of American history.

I would say that if a person really wanted to understand King Philip's War without spending decades studying it, this is a good book to read along with Leach's "Flintlock and Tomahawk" and LePore's "The Name of War."

Fantastic maps! Very helpful in getting a good picture of the battles.

For two years--1675 to 1676--Native Americans waged war against Colonial Americans, a ghastly, bloody conflict punctured with atrocities on both sides. Many Indian nations participated, but they were lead by a Wampanoag chief (or sachem) whose Christian name was Philip, and who was generally referred to (perhaps sarcastically) as King Philip.

In the war's first year, the Indians stormed with impunity throughout New England, slashing Colonial militias (one battle resulted in Muddy Brook, Massachusetts being renamed Bloody Brook), decimating villages and often reducing entire settlements to ashes, as well as taking scores of Colonists hostage, either to be tortured and killed or sold as slaves to other tribes. Colonists abandoned their farms and streamed to Plymouth and Boston for protection.

In the war's second year, the now-seasoned Colonial militias ruthlessly pursued the Indians through forest and swamp, often slaughtering those who had surrendered, and forcing captured Indians to help them track down their former comrades-in-arms. A formidable tactician, and with a keen eye for military prowess in his fellow Native Americans, King Philip was also a wily prey who was generally acknowledged "to never roost in the same place twice." King Philip was Colonial America's Public Enemy No. 1.

At last, King Philip was found. Promptly shot and killed, his corpse was dismembered and decapitated. His head was placed on a stake in downtown Plymouth. His captains and lieutenants were publicly executed. After suffering cumulative fatalities of 15,000, the surviving Indians were forced to relocate to set-aside tracts of real estate--the concept of Indian Reservations was thus born in America.

The Colonists themselves suffered a different retribution. For many years, England had been preoccupied with European affairs of state, but this war brought the Colonies to the top of Parliament's agenda. Investigations revealed that the Colonists violated both the letter and the spirit of several British decrees, and were behaving altogether too independently. A tight collar was thereupon fastened about New England's throat, and the eventual result was the American Revolution.

However, the most heartbreaking fact of King Philip's War is its lineage. King Philip was the second son of the Wampanoag Chief Massasoit, who shared in the first Thanksgiving feast with the Pilgrims in 1621. That wondrous day of respect and good will was erased in just one generation.