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EARLY AMERICAN WAYS OF WAR: A NEW RECONAISSANCE, 1600–1815

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2001

WAYNE E. LEE
Affiliation:
University of Louisville

Abstract

This review examines recent work on the ideology, culture, and socio-economic composition of early American militaries down to 1815. A fresh place has been given to the role of a Native American culture of war in influencing colonial warfare, although the exact nature of the synthesis of European and Indian traditions remains unclear. Social and economic investigations of the colonial militias and the Continental Army have revealed persistent patterns of expectations of contractual service and subsequent effective resistance when those conditions were not met. Taken together these works have brought us closer to a deeper understanding of the links between culture and military behaviour.

Type
Historiographical Review
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Karen Kupperman for encouraging me to write this review. I received many helpful suggestions from Don Higginbotham, Richard Kohn, Elizabeth Fenn, Holly Mayer, Robert Angevine, and Chris Wade. Each contributed significantly to the improvement of this review, but remain absolved from problems of fact or interpretation. Finally, thanks to Brian Ferguson and Scott Hendrix for providing me copies of their work in progress.