Four continuities, or themes, link the disparate wars, rebellions, and revolutions that characterize English North America during its colonial and early national periods. Conflicts between English colonists and the Native American peoples whose lands were being colonized constitute the first theme. By the late seventeenth century, a second continuity emerges in the European struggle for control of North America, which gradually absorbed the regional struggles between settlers and Indians. This triangular relationship between English American settlers, Native Americans, and European states persisted through this entire period. Warfare frequently aggravated preexisting sectional hostilities leading to the third theme of armed conflict between English settlers and their eastern governments. Not only did war stimulate sectional violence among whites, but in the fourth theme offered America's African slaves the occasion and inspiration to assert their drive for freedom in armed insurrections. Altogether these...