Seven Years War Analysis

Though both authors are writing similar topics, their arguments are much different. In the book A People 's Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years ' War, written by Fred Anderson he studies the Seven Years War from a social history perspective. Instead of focusing on the military aspects of the Seven Years War, he would look for the history of the people within the war, such as, colonial Americans in the New England area. Anderson argues for New England exceptionalism through rising tension between Britain and the colonies, as well as, claiming Puritan Christianity as what shape Massachusetts volunteers to fight, and at times desert. He aims to show how the American colonies, although unified for this war, gradually

In the book A People 's Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years ' War, Anderson tries to capture the war through the lives of the provincial soldier. In order to do that Anderson presents a large amount of primary sources from that time, including letters, books, diaries, memoirs, and other documents. He uses these sources to illustrate the lives of the colonial soldiers and detail the conditions and day to day activities they had. In addition, show the effects the war on the men’s personal lives, as well as, the local economies. As for A Rabble in Arms: Massachusetts Towns and Militiamen during King Philip’s War, Zelner looks at much different sources to gauge recruitment of militiamen. He looks at the assumption of troops sent to war was an equal cross section of the population, which wasn’t the case. Those who were in charge of picking men for the army were very calculated in their decision of who. In order to determine who would be taken from the militia to fill quotas for expeditions, Zelner looks at the demographic of the area during that time through property records, pay list, muster rolls, meeting records, and court records. In addition, every soldier who served in the Seven Years War, Zolner identified, as well as, their age, marriage status, profession, and were they lived. By looking at the enlistment patterns, it can be seen that militia committees made discriminating choices. Looking at both books and the sources used by the authors, it highlights how each author approached their topic. Anderson, primarily uses individual’s accounts/experiences, while Zelner relies on town records of particularly events or