This comprehensive work explores the militia system and its role in
the development of colonial New England. Ahearn contends that the
militia and the military sermon created an atmosphere of Christian
soldiery and warfare that exercised a powerful, long-lasting hold
upon New Englanders. Ministers reinforced martial drill and
militancy in their sermons. The language and attitudes of warfare
became part of the society. New England's military sermons deeply
encoded the biblical language of Christian warfare into the
patterns of everyday life and into the fabric of American
consciousness; its influence continues to the present day. The
study is organized into three major sections. The first part
introduces the New England colonial institution of the part-time
military, furnishing an overview of origins, organization, and
operation. Part Two demonstrates the ways in which the tradition of
aggressive martial discourse helped to galvanize colonists to
militant resistance and prompted New England's aggressive responses
to real or perceived enemies in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. The third part of the book addresses the main branchings
in the pattern of martial argument in the third quarter of the
eighteenth century, as well as three different strands of the
military sermon. The Rhetoric of War is a unique study that will be
of value to students of American history, religion, and rhetoric.
General
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