A People's Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years' War

by Fred Anderson

Book Overview

A People's Army documents the many distinctions between British regulars and Massachusetts provincial troops during the Seven Years' War. Originally published by UNC Press in 1984, the book was the first investigation of colonial military life to give equal attention to official records and to the diaries and other writings of the common soldier. The provincials' own accounts of their experiences in the campaign amplify statistical profiles...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807845760
• ISBN13: 9780807845769
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Omohundro Institute and Unc Press
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

"The Embattled Farmers"

Fred Anderson provides an insightful portrayal of New England soldiery in one of the most important wars in history. He tells of the Yankee soldiers un-millitary free spirit, his sense of his own rights, and of his religious fervor. Qualities that would be in future American armies in different forms for both good or bad. One of the themes is culture clash with Crown forces and worse with Crown bureaucrats. Very few knew how to get the best out of Yankees and avoid the worst. It was generally assumed that the British way was best under all circumstances. This is a problem that is avoidable: future British colonial auxilieries would actually be improved by taking advantage of local cultural quirks. However this did not prove the case here. One of the main problems stemmed from the fact that the British Army was in large measure a workhouse. New England, with wide spaces of land, and(as is shown in the book Albions Seed by David Hackett Fischer), an original population carefully chosen to be self-supporting, did not at the time have a large portion of it's population that needed to serve on such terms. On the other hand what it did have was a large and intelligent middle class from which excellant millitary material could have been made. As it was, the Colonials looked on the British as overdisciplined and the British looked upon them as undisciplined. Moreover this difference was not just millitary but extended to the whole cultures. And the contact produced a fear in Colonials that the Crown would force them to change their comparatively good-natured and easy-going societal structure into something they could not live with. This was the real cause of the American Revolution, not the grand theories of intellectuals but the simple desire of people to be left alone. It is simplistic to say because of this that the British were evil. They were(with due allowance made to human failings)more or less determined for the public good. Unfortunately, many of them made the wrong interpretation of the public good. Besides theory the book provides actual accounts of several New Englanders who went to war at that time. Most of them prove fairly likable people to my way of thinking(perhaps I have more then a little Old Yankee in me). And in any case they give insight into the mindset of the time. Unlike some, I do not subscribe to the theory that historical study must have "lessons for today": I feel that implies both an ascetic scorn for studying out of pure interest, and conceivably the idea that people of the past, who were after all real people, have no purpose except as modern political tools. However this time I will point out that there are lessons for today. Today, for better or for worse America is the hyperpower and will often be found working with local institutions in various enterprises both martial and peaceable. In effect we will be at times in the place of the Crown forces in this book. At that time we must remember how to cooperate locally

Highly insightful

Though limited to the provincial soldiers of Massachusetts, this book provides ample insights to the colonial soldiers of the French and Indian war and will serve the reader well for any course of study on the subject. Most informative. Easy to read. A good book to have for those interested in Colonial American History or just the French and Indian Conflict.

Classic Fred Anderson

This book was a very good portrayal of the New England soldier during the French & Indian War.One got to see what motivated the soldiers of this time period and the one-time opportunity that this war represented for many of them.I recommend Anderson's work.

Great reading !

Fred Anderson did a marvelous job with this book..... it's a "big" book but the chapters are short and to the point......well written..... Fred puts in "Tid-a-bits" of information that you will not find in ordinary history books and tid-a-bits are what makes history interesting.

Fantastic account of Pre-Revolutionary American Military

Anderson gives a detailed account of the conditions and day to day activities of the provincial regiments in the Seven Year's War. Using stastics and detailed diaries from the participants, Anderson shows the effects of the war on both the local economies and personal lives of the men who, thirteen years later, would take up arms against Britian in the War of Independence.