The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics Among the New England Indians [Paperback]

Patrick M. Malone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0801845548 | ISBN-13: 978-0801845543 | Publication Date: April 1, 1993

The Indians of southern New England understood the military importance of technology long before their first meeting with a white man. Their crafts and modes of limited warfare were well suited for their environment and culture. But the arrival of Europeans, with advanced weapons and a ruthless concept of total war, soon changed the Indian way of life and raised the costs of armed conflict. This book looks at combat in the 17th century and shows how Indians honed their skills, creatively adapting European military technology to fit their own needs. The Native Americans' proficiency in forest warfare, coupled with their rapid acquisition and mastery of firearms, took the colonists by surprise. Indians not only showed superior marksmanship and tactics, but also learned to repair muskets, make gunflints and cast bullets. Trained from childhood to hunt with bows and to aim at individuals in combat, Indians took advantage of the flintlock's accuracy. Their response to the massed volleys of European military formations was deadly, accurate fire from well-concealed positions. During the brutal and destructive King Philip's War of 1675-77, Indians armed with flintlocks, fire arrows and steel-edged hatchets proved to be fearsome adversaries, adept in the use of stealth, surprise and mobility. This "skulking way of war" shook the confidence of the colonists and forced them to adopt new tactics for forest warfare - tactics that would be refined and developed in later colonial wars as well as in the American Revolution.

Editorial Reviews

Review

""Brilliantly combine[s] technical expertise and historical research... Lavishly illustrated. Malone presents overwhelming evidence of the skills New England Indians brought to the acquisition of European military technology, despite the efforts of both the home and colonial governments to prevent such technology transfer." -- Technology and Culture

"A thorough, clear, and provocative work of scholarship that deserves the attention of anyone interested in the intersection of technology, culture, and warfare in early America." -- Journal of American History

Review

"A fascinating excursion into a little-explored area of early American history. General readers as well as specialists are bound to find the work instructive. It is a gem." -- Merritt Roe Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press (April 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801845548
• ISBN-13: 978-0801845543
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,737,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very highly recommended military history reading, January 16, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics Among the New England Indians (Paperback)

In The Skulking Way Of War: Technology And Tactics Among The New England Indians, Patrick Malone (Senior Lecturer in the American Civilization department of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island) surveys the weaponry and tactics among the Native Americans of New England and how they changed after the arrival of the European settlers and the introduction of gunpowder. Borrowing and modifying the flintlock musket for their own use, Native American fighters developed superior tactics and became a deadly force in forest warfare. During King Philip's War (1675-1677), Native American groups wrought intense destruction upon European (largely British) settler's colonies, forcing the whites to adopt the same mode of forest combat. These new tactics would re-emerge during the Revolutionary War against Britain and in subsequent American wars down to this very day, altering combat throughout the world. The Skulking Way Of War is very highly recommended reading for students of American history, military history, and Native American studies.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, February 17, 2011

By 

rochester777 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics Among the New England Indians (Paperback)

A very disappointing book The author stated certain underlying (and unsupported) assumptions in the introduction which included that Indians he studied (and by implication all North East Indian tribes) did not kill non-combatants until the Europeans showed them how to engage in total war-a war against civilians (pg 1). This introduction of "total war" is blamed on the Christian Puritans and their concept of Holy War - pg 103. He suggests that early 1600's inter-tribal Indian wars rarely killed anyone and these wars seemed more like sport than brutal warfare (pg. 9, 29-31, 126). Not until fighting with Europeans did the Indians abandon "most of the self-imposed restraints that had limited the death and destruction in their traditional patterns of warfare" (pg 128). In his chapter entitled "Proficiency with Firearms:, he suggests that Indians were better marksman than the average European and offers reasons why we should take his seemingly bias opinion but he is being completely speculative and his opinion is unsupported by factual data.

I never wish to say this about any book but I found nothing useful or insightful in this edition. The author has an anti-European axe to grind and this bias infects this entire book. His primary thesis appears to be-Indians are superior to Europeans ethically, intellectually, and culturally and he then attempts to use a military theme to prove that thesis.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Skulking Way of War - Indigination of the First People, June 23, 2011

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R. H. Swenson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Skulking Way of War: Technology and Tactics Among the New England Indians (Paperback)

Patrick M. Malone has shattered the myth of the American Indian as being an ignorant savage who was incapable of learning or of having the ability to learn European ways. "The Skulking Way of War" presented the argument that the American Indians of New England learned many skills from the English and adapted those newly learned skills into their culture and used those skills to improve their way of life. Malone brings to the forefront the concept of Indigination,or the Anglosizing of the New England Indians which led to drastic misunderstanding between the New England Indians and the English - especially in warfare.

Malone puts forward the concepts that the English immigrants to New England were more farmers and shop keepers than hunters of game, thusly had little practical skills needed for the using of Flintlock of Matchlock muskets. In contrast the New England Indians had the hunting skills from using the bow and arrow combined with the skills of the stalking style of hunting. When the New England Indians acquired English technology of the Flintlock, the Indians became extremely good marksmen. By apprenticeship to the English the New England Indians also learned to become gunsmiths and even competent gun builders, enough so that the Dutch of the Hudson River Valley was smuggling gun parts to the New England Indians for repairing or the building of guns.

There are many instances of indigination/assimilation between cultures and this book presents this cultural exchange in a very well research manner. This book is a must read for any student of early American history or for any teachers or professors of history to either use for class lectures or to have students read as part of the ongoing studies of early American Colonial history. This book should be a shining example that shatters the myth of European superiority over American Indian ignorance and puts the reflection of arrogance not on the Indians, but upon the Europeans where it must reside.

This book will help cure your ignorance and enlighten your knowledge of the New England frontier of the seventeenth century. Enjoy.