The Indians of southern New England understood the military importance of technology long before their first meeting with a white man. Their crafts and modes of limited warfare were well suited for their environment and culture. But the arrival of Europeans, with advanced weapons and a ruthless concept of total war, soon changed the Indian way of life and raised the costs of armed conflict. This book looks at combat in the 17th century and shows how Indians honed their skills, creatively adapting European military technology to fit their own needs. The Native Americans' proficiency in forest warfare, coupled with their rapid acquisition and mastery of firearms, took the colonists by surprise. Indians not only showed superior marksmanship and tactics, but also learned to repair muskets, make gunflints and cast bullets. Trained from childhood to hunt with bows and to aim at individuals in combat, Indians took advantage of the flintlock's accuracy. Their response to the massed volleys of European military formations was deadly, accurate fire from well-concealed positions. During the brutal and destructive King Philip's War of 1675-77, Indians armed with flintlocks, fire arrows and steel-edged hatchets proved to be fearsome adversaries, adept in the use of stealth, surprise and mobility. This "skulking way of war" shook the confidence of the colonists and forced them to adopt new tactics for forest warfare - tactics that would be refined and developed in later colonial wars as well as in the American Revolution.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Timely Commentary:

In light of the present situation faced by our military - conducting special operations across the globe, Malone's book ties nicely into what we have now coined "modern combat". In Afghanistan, we have seen our special operations forces "going native" and "skulking" through the bush - adopting native cover and customs to fight an elusive enemy. Malone's seminal work on Native American tactics purports perhaps a vision of what we will see our military conduct in future combat in Iraq. "Red Mike" Edson was... more info

Very highly recommended military history reading:

In The Skulking Way Of War: Technology And Tactics Among The New England Indians, Patrick Malone (Senior Lecturer in the American Civilization department of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island) surveys the weaponry and tactics among the Native Americans of New England and how they changed after the arrival of the European settlers and the introduction of gunpowder. Borrowing and modifying the flintlock musket for their own use, Native American fighters developed superior tactics and became a deadly... more info

Very disappointed, does not live up to it�s title:

This is another "postmodernist" history -- one that assumes that the Indians were a spiritual, peace loving, disease free people who communed with nature. Then came the big bad honkies with their diseases, guns and "total warfare."
Malone takes bits of information and constructs them in is to history. He finds an obscure record of a White who got in trouble with White authorities for selling a defective gun to an Indian. Obviously the Indian knew the gun was defective, claims Malone, he was just buying... more info

The Skulking Way:

This book really is a must for any one who reads military tactics or combat. The Skulking Way of War is the assigned term to the Native American's form of warefare. Adopting it for themselves, the colonists of the early new world were able to win both the French and Indian war and eventually their war for Independence. For anyone intrested in the recent trend of movies, such as The Patriot, or even Last of Mohicans, this book outlines the emergence of the gun in both the colonists and the Native American's... more info

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