The Name of War

The Name of War, by Harvard historian Jill Lepore, tells the story of King Philip’s War, the first major battle between American colonists and Native Americans, and its aftermath in historical commentary. It is a conflict the settlers barely win on the ground, but one in which they prevail decisively on the battlefield of the written word. Published in 1998, The Name of War gathers multiple awards, including the Bancroft Prize.

After decades of peace between New England settlers and indigenous Algonquians, several Native groups become frustrated by unfair treatment from colonists. They are angered by the settlers’ appropriation of their land and troubled by ongoing missionary efforts to convert the Natives to Christianity. These groups align themselves under Wampanoag chief Philip and attack English settlements in June 1675. More than a year of bloody and bitter fighting ensues, with death and destruction on both sides, until the Native groups are decimated, Philip is killed, and the English return to their burned-out villages and begin to rebuild.

Part 1 explains how a murder mystery leads to war. John Sassamon, a Christianized Indian preacher and interpreter, learns of Philip’s plan to attack the settlements; caught between cultures and loyalties, Sassamon decides to warn the English, hoping this will prevent war. The authorities dismiss his concerns; shortly afterward, Sassamon is killed. A witness claims that agents of Philip have murdered Sassamon; the suspects are convicted and executed. Enraged, Philip launches his war. Within months, a conflict of words begins as well, with numerous accounts of the hostilities published, most of them condemning the Indians as wanton and cruel.

Part 2 details the battles in which Indians attack and burn towns; kill, torture, and dismember settlers; then disappear into forests and swamps where they are hard to follow. The English learn to match cruelty with cruelty; they track a tribe to a hidden village that the colonists then burn, killing nearly a thousand Indians. Native fighters, in truth far from wanton, wage war ceremonially with an eye toward exploiting the religious and philosophical weaknesses of the colonists.

Part 3 explains the war’s two kinds of prisoners and how they are perceived by both sides. Indians take captives, most notably Mary Rowlandson, a preacher’s wife who later publishes her experiences in a book that becomes America’s first best-seller. For their part, the colonists capture and enslave hundreds of Indians; many are sold overseas by settlers who convince themselves that enslavement is a justified spoil of war against a socially inferior enemy.

Part 4 examines how King Philip’s War echoes through American history, and how Americans define their relationship to indigenous peoples. During the nineteenth century, Indians are romanticized in print as a noble but extinct people. In fact, they are still quite alive, though ignored, and a popular play, Metamora, glorifies Philip as a tragic hero. At the same time, most Americans favor a policy of deporting Natives from their eastern homelands. In later decades, Indians are by turns vilified and glorified without regard to the nuances of their actual needs and concerns.

The Name of War demonstrates how words, printed or spoken, can devastate a culture more thoroughly than warfare, and how mistreatment and cruelty can be explained away, or even blamed on the victim, through ongoing justifications in speeches, essays, and books.

Professor Jill Lepore has written more than a dozen books and has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The Name of War is extensively researched, containing hundreds of annotated references and numerous illustrations and photos. Other works by this author include These Truths: A History of the United States, Book of Ages, and The Secret History of Wonder Woman.