The History of King Philip's War (review)

War films are a dime a dozen, but few that address wars with Native Americans are worthy of classroom use. Thus, The History of King Philip's War is a rare find. King Philip's War (1675-77) was fought in New England between many of the region's Indian communities and the English colonies and their own native allies. Though limited in scope, it was per capita America's bloodiest and most costly war.

Despite its importance (and the recent surge of professional scholarship concerning the war), there is truth in the film's claim that King Philip's War remains America's "forgotten conflict." The film's creators seek to fill this lacuna and bring the war to a wider audience by providing a balanced picture of the conflict that satisfies scholars and teachers, yet remains brief enough for classroom use. The film achieves its goals.

Based largely on a 1999 book by Eric Schultz and Michael Tougias, the film incorporates scholarship on the war while maintaining popular appeal. Various authors, scholars, native historians, and contemporary accounts provide the dialogue, while helpful maps, contemporary images, and scenes from historic sites provide the landscape.

The film is necessarily short in length, yet it manages to capture the essence of the war, cover the major events, and discuss the aftermath. When covering the war's roots, viewers are presented with a well-balanced look at the issues of land, livestock, and religious encroachment, as well as the different worldviews of New England's Native and European occupants, all of which led to an atmosphere of tension. Curiously, the murder of the Christian Indian John Sassamon (usually cited as the catalyst for the war) goes completely unmentioned. This omission aside, the film covers major points such as the Bloody Brook ambush, the Great Swamp Fight, Mary Rowlandson's captivity, and Philip's death. Instead of trumpeting the success of English arms, the film correctly attributes English victory to logistics. With fields burned, unable to plant new crops, and debilitated by disease, Philip's allies were unable to continue the struggle. The film also examines the war's aftermath, the destruction of southern New England's Indians through battle, starvation, and enslavement, as well as the trauma inflicted on English colonists.

This short film is ideally suited for use in a variety of courses, from the standard American History survey to those on colonial America, military history, or Native Americans. Paired with a reading of Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative or selections from Puritan divine Cotton Mather, it provides fodder for discussion on Puritan theology and society, or broader changes in seventeenth-century New England. If read with excerpts from soldier Benjamin Church's biography, it helps visualize changes in European/ colonial warfare. Beyond this, the film also provides a valuable lesson in the historian's craft. By examining the official histories written by Puritan theologians, which shaped later interpretations, as well as incorporating Native oral histories, the film demonstrates the shifting nature of historical interpretation. With all of this packed into twenty-six minutes, The History of King Philip's War should find its way into many classrooms.