ABSTRACT
North America, from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, offers intriguing contexts in which to study the relationship between war and society. Historians of the continent in this period employ the same frameworks as those considering other times and places, such as race, class, gender, and local/regional studies. They also examine topics more germane to war per se, such as combatant and noncombatant experiences. But their work also explores special circumstances in early North America. For example, until the end of the nineteenth century some parts of the continent contained borderlands, regions in which (1) peoples of different and distinct cultures—including Native Americans—interacted and (2) political authority was unsettled or contested. In these areas war was a central concern for all groups, and research has examined how intercultural experiences altered perspectives and conceptions of conflict, as well social norms and identities. Another distinct feature of early North America was the nature of political authority. The limited extent of imperial, later national, authority raises intriguing questions about the nature of military service and sacrifice among the broader population, and how particular American and U.S. military institutions evolved up to the late nineteenth century.
