The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity

Jill Lepore analyzes the 1675 conflict between New England colonists and Algonquian Indians, arguing that the war was as much a battle over language and memory as it was over territory. She examines how English settlers used the written word—diaries, histories, and sermons—to define themselves as "civilized" while portraying their indigenous opponents as "savage." By documenting the physical destruction of the war alongside the rhetorical construction of its narrative, Lepore demonstrates how these seventeenth-century accounts created a durable framework for American national identity built on the exclusion and vilification of native peoples.

Readers interested in the intersection of cultural history and linguistics find this book useful for its detailed examination of how narrative shapes political reality. It appeals to those studying early colonial history who want to understand the origins of racial categories in North America. The reader learns how historical memory is manufactured through selective storytelling and leaves with a specific framework for analyzing how wartime propaganda influences long-term cultural legacies.