Untitled research work

This brief documentary is derived from the book King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict (1999), by Eric Schultz and Michael Tougias. The book, which has earned regional accolades as a tourist's guide to sites and locations important in King Philip's War, has garnered little scholarly attention outside of New England and does not fare well when compared to studies by James Drake, Jill Lepore, and Russell Bourne. As the video's script is an abridgment of the book written by the authors themselves, it suffers from the same shortcomings. There is no discernable argument driving the presentation. The film instead comes across as a timeline account of battles and raids with little interlinking interpretation. To be fair, the historical talking heads, who include both authors as well as staff members of Plimoth Plantation and Native American consultants, offer assessment (Nancy Eldridge is particularly good), but their contribution is not enough to rescue the film from its uninspiring march through chronology. Moreover, important historical considerations, including Philip's efforts to resolve the dispute in court and the strategically important entry of the Mohawks into the war, are absent from the narration and discussion.