"In the Name of War" Written by Jill Lepore: King Phillips War and the Origins of American Identity

According to the historian Jill Lepore, before the war between the Anglo and Indian population known as "King Phillip's War," cultural and linguistic barriers between these two dominant populations of the Eastern half of the Americas were fluid rather than fixed. However, the aftermath of this war in 1675, when tensions between Native Americans and colonists residing in New England erupted into brutal conflict a sharp cultural division was incurred. This cultural division has never again been broached as it had been before the war transpired. Although the title of Lepore's book refers to the name of war, it could very well refer to the mutual language of war between the Anglo and Indian nations, and the differing languages of cultural discourse.
The preface of this book, significantly, is entitled "What's in a Name?" The detail Lepore devotes to language, involving analyzing many primary source excerpts of the period, tracts, dime store novels and religious broadsides is impressive. …