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The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500–1800 Paperback – August 29, 2023

by Wayne E. Lee (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
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Incorporating archeology, anthropology, cartography, and Indigenous studies into military history, Wayne E. Lee has argued throughout his distinguished career that wars and warfare cannot be understood by a focus that rests solely on logistics, strategy, and operations. Fighting forces bring their own cultural traditions and values onto the battlefield. In this volume, Lee employs his "cutting-off way of war" (COWW) paradigm to recast Indigenous warfare in a framework of the lived realities of Native people rather than with regard to European and settler military strategies and practices.

Indigenous people lacked deep reserves of population or systems of coercive military recruitment and as such were wary of heavy casualties. Instead, Indigenous warriors sought to surprise their targets, and the size of the target varied with the size of the attacking force. A small war party might "cut off" individuals found getting water, wood, or out hunting, while a larger party might attempt to attack a whole town. Once revealed by its attack, the invading war party would flee before the defenders' reinforcements from nearby towns could organize. Sieges or battles were rare and fought mainly to save face or reputation. After discussing the COWW paradigm, including a deep look at Native logistics and their associated strategic flexibility, Lee demonstrates how the system worked and evolved in five subsequent chapters that detail intra-tribal and Indigenous-colonial warfare from pre-contact through the American Revolution.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    300 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    The University of North Carolina Press
  4. Publication date
    August 29, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    6.13 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1469673789
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1469673783
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

An ambitious and thoughtful reassessment of Native American war-making before and after permanent European settlement in the early 17th century...Lee draws upon extensive new evidence to engage with existing scholarship and investigate previously unexplored territory."—Wall Street Journal



One of the benefits of studying the military histories of non-European groups is that it reminds us that there are very different means of waging war, as well as reasons for doing so. In The Cutting-Off Way, Wayne E. Lee argues that the fluid, Native American style of war was quite alien to the European soldiers who encountered it . . . . The aims of their wars were also different, argues Lee."—New York Times Book Review

Review

This is an ambitious, sweeping study that demonstrates mastery of secondary and primary sources—historical, archaeological, and anthropological."—Sherry L. Smith, author of Hippies, Indians, & the Fight for Red Power

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press (August 29, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1469673789
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1469673783
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.02 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

About the author

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Wayne E. Lee

Wayne E. Lee

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I'm a professor of history at the University of North Carolina. Although I am a specialist in the military history of early modern Europe and America, I have since branched out into world and comparative military history, writing about Europeans, Mongols, Ottomans, Native Americans, and many more peoples in various contexts. My book *Waging War*, although originally conceived as a text for teaching world military history, goes much further than traditional textbooks. It contains much new research and reframes our way of examining the broad history of human conflict. Most recently, along those lines, together with three colleagues I wrote *The Other Face of Battle*, designed to remind Americans that most of the wars in our past have been fought NOT against states, or against enemies we expected, but against peoples from other cultures, fighting in ways we weren't prepared for. That unexpectedness then shaped the human experience of combat and the strategic outcomes. My *Barbarians and Brothers* is increasingly a standard in the field of early American warfare, but I always like to point out that it reaches well beyond the field's usual boundaries; it examines warfare in Ireland, Native American techniques of warfare, and of course the more usual Europeans in both England and in North America. .

I've also worked as an archaeologist in various places, including Albania, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, and Loudoun County, Virginia. That work has influenced my historical work in various unexpected ways, but continues to be mostly a labor of love (our work in Albania was published in the book Light and Shadow, winner of the 2014 Society for American Archaeology book of the year award.)

I was an officer in the U.S. army from 1987 to 1992, and served in the 1991 Gulf War. I blacksmith as a hobby, something which has also had interesting side effects on my historical work.

You can see my academic publishing list at www.unc.edu/~welee

Follow me on Twitter at @MilHist_Lee

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
18 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

nc
5.0 out of 5 stars Readable, puts lots of data together, and makes sense.
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2023
Verified Purchase
The phrase that the author uses for his title is made-up, but perhaps it deserves to become a recognized shorthand anyway.

I think this work is comparable to Victor Davis Hanson's "Western Way of War" of a generation ago. VDH synthesized lots of data to create an understandable model of what Classical Greek warfare was about and how it worked. Lots of younger authors now dedicate their time to picking holes in that thesis, but it nevertheless has provided a very valuable tool for getting to grips with realities that earlier authors had ignored or misinterpreted.

This work, like VDH, gives you a synthesized idea of how war worked for the Native societies of the Eastern Woodlands- including tactics, campaign strategy (and he argues very convincingly that there very much was such a thing), what the standards were for victory of defeat, and how wars began and ended. He also gives a admirably clear explanation of the odd angles at which those ideas of war intersected with colonial/European ones that manages to to condescend to either side. The author shows you how he reaches his conclusions and gives illustrative and well-told examples along the way.

It deserves to be remembered and referred to in much the same way as VDH's work is now. If there are people critiquing his thesis in 30 years, that will be a very healthy sign.
4 people found this helpful
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TBu
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2024
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This book is a fascinating and thorough look at native warfare in North America from first contact to about the American Revolution.

Lee argues convincingly that much like every other society that has ever gone to war, Native American societies were constrained by the political and resource realities places on them. While completely unable field long term campaigns against each other, their goals in warfare (short and long term) are as familiar to any reader of history as the constraints: self-defense, plunder, resources access and prestige.

Definitely worth the read!
2 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023
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I deeply enjoyed reading this book, and highly recommend it for anyone trying to learn more about North American history.
One person found this helpful
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Snooz
2.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately it’s a bore
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2023
Verified Purchase
Unless one is a scholar specializing in Native American warfare, this book becomes a list of minor facts, and details, without a coherent story or conclusion. It reads more like a thesis paper than a book. Put me to sleep more than once.
3 people found this helpful
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Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, informative, changed my perspective
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2023
This book gave me a new perspective on Native and colonial history. I highly recommend it for people who want to learn.
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