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ajkhn's review against another edition
4.0
I was very, very excited for this book. All throughout reading it, I was very excited for that feeling of having a unique argument presented — and it took all the way for the epilogue for Lepore to really build her case and make her argument. That epilogue is fascinating, and great.
Unfortunately, a lot of the buildup to it was a bit of a slog. Lepore (or her editors) made the odd choice not to modernize the syntax and spelling of any of her 17th-century sources, which makes them tough to read through. For an end-noted history book, this seems like a weird choice.
In general, I found myself trying to piece things together and trusting Lepore to make the arguments much more then I was able to really follow along. I had to put a lot of myself into reading this, which I just was not really able to do all the time because of how I chose to read this book (not as a text, but as a book to read before falling asleep at night).
The book delivers everything it says it will, and I am very glad I read it. I just needed a lot more time and heart to read it than I expected. That's four stars on me, as much as it is on Lepore.
Unfortunately, a lot of the buildup to it was a bit of a slog. Lepore (or her editors) made the odd choice not to modernize the syntax and spelling of any of her 17th-century sources, which makes them tough to read through. For an end-noted history book, this seems like a weird choice.
In general, I found myself trying to piece things together and trusting Lepore to make the arguments much more then I was able to really follow along. I had to put a lot of myself into reading this, which I just was not really able to do all the time because of how I chose to read this book (not as a text, but as a book to read before falling asleep at night).
The book delivers everything it says it will, and I am very glad I read it. I just needed a lot more time and heart to read it than I expected. That's four stars on me, as much as it is on Lepore.
wayfaring_witch's review against another edition
4.0
This book focuses on King Philip's War, of which I knew little about, and the literary and physical aspects of War. While the argument for the literary victory of the war got dry, it was interesting none the less. Also, every American should learn about King Philip's War as it really shows a lot about the founding of the country with the relation to Native Americans.
damsorrow's review against another edition
5.0
the one history book you read in college that you actually keep when you move out
clellman's review against another edition
4.0
Learned a lot. Tons of primary sources integrated into the analysis, which was really cool, since I didn't even know there were so many early colonial records. Well-written. A bit dense in the middle. 4.5
neoteotihuacan's review against another edition
5.0
Simply an extraordinary book. The author commands the subject with fine-tuned detail and targeted ruminations that have a direct line of input with what US nationalism is and with what the nature of all wars everywhere, across time, might be. Wars are a contest of blood, yes, but importantly a contest of narratives.
King Phillip's War was immediately a war of combative worldviews. The invaders, English people highly animated by a particular version of Christianity, sought to justify their occupation of someone else's land and then justify the reactions to that occupation in a way that places English and European cultures at the center of their cultural world. Racism, as we understand it, was being born in this period. The Algonquian nations, whose cultures and nationhoods were increasingly invaded and eroded, sought to carve out an independent, traditional space in an America that they knew was changing. And their tactics reveal that they both understood their enemy and misunderstood them at the same time. This is especially true for the English, who sought to define their English-ness against the mistakes of Spanish colonialism and the perceived barbarity of Native America.
But controlling the narrative of a war isn't enough, because as the memory of the war fades, new meanings, new definitions are added. And most of those new meanings and definitions are unexpected. How King Philip's War intersects with US Nationality and myth-building is perhaps the most surprising aspect to this war that never quite ended. How the war came to define the savagery of British tactics in the American Revolution, how it came to be used to celebrate US culture-as-native in order to define American-ness against the British after the Revolution, how it got turned into one of the most popular stage plays in the history of the country, one which celebrated one particular view of Native America at a time of Indian Removal and Jacksonian racism...all of this shows that the narrative has many, conflicting storytellers. A war is an unwieldy set of meanings, and a nationality doubly so.
Jill Lepore is amazing. Her abilities to weave the story successfully sells the mind-boggling twists and turns of this war and its narratives from over 400 years ago until the present day. I will be reading the rest of her popular writing.
King Phillip's War was immediately a war of combative worldviews. The invaders, English people highly animated by a particular version of Christianity, sought to justify their occupation of someone else's land and then justify the reactions to that occupation in a way that places English and European cultures at the center of their cultural world. Racism, as we understand it, was being born in this period. The Algonquian nations, whose cultures and nationhoods were increasingly invaded and eroded, sought to carve out an independent, traditional space in an America that they knew was changing. And their tactics reveal that they both understood their enemy and misunderstood them at the same time. This is especially true for the English, who sought to define their English-ness against the mistakes of Spanish colonialism and the perceived barbarity of Native America.
But controlling the narrative of a war isn't enough, because as the memory of the war fades, new meanings, new definitions are added. And most of those new meanings and definitions are unexpected. How King Philip's War intersects with US Nationality and myth-building is perhaps the most surprising aspect to this war that never quite ended. How the war came to define the savagery of British tactics in the American Revolution, how it came to be used to celebrate US culture-as-native in order to define American-ness against the British after the Revolution, how it got turned into one of the most popular stage plays in the history of the country, one which celebrated one particular view of Native America at a time of Indian Removal and Jacksonian racism...all of this shows that the narrative has many, conflicting storytellers. A war is an unwieldy set of meanings, and a nationality doubly so.
Jill Lepore is amazing. Her abilities to weave the story successfully sells the mind-boggling twists and turns of this war and its narratives from over 400 years ago until the present day. I will be reading the rest of her popular writing.
edwardianpoet's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
farkle's review against another edition
4.0
Started reading this in preparation for an upcoming museum collections program. Found the writing compelling and the (ongoing) conflict remains relevant today (although the context shifts depending on how you look at it). Apparently American identity is still a work in progress.