
The Wars of the Lord
The Puritan Conquest of America's First People
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bob Souer
About this listen
When Puritan soldiers slaughtered hundreds of indigenous men, women, and children at Fort Mystic in 1637, during the Pequot War, they believed they were doing God's will. The same was true during King Philip's War, perhaps the bloodiest war in American history. The Puritan clergyman Increase Mather described this conflict as a "war of the Lord," a war in which God was judging the enemies of his people.
Puritan Christianity, Matthew J. Tuininga shows, shaped both the spiritual and military conquests of New England from beginning to end. It is not only that the people who did these things happened to be Christians; it is that Christianity was the framework they used to guide, interpret, and defend every major act of peace or war. They made sincere efforts to treat Natives according to Christian principles of love and justice as they understood them, and their sustained missionary efforts demonstrate how serious they were about saving native souls. Yet they appealed to Christianity just as confidently when they subjugated, enslaved, or killed native peoples in the name of justice. A mission they saw as spiritual, peaceful, benevolent, and just devolved into a military conquest that was virtually genocidal. This book tells the story of how this happened from the perspective of those who lived it, both colonists and Native Americans.
©2025 Oxford University Press (P)2025 Highbridge AudioPeople who viewed this also viewed...
-
Saving Michelangelo’s Dome
- How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution
- By: Wayne Kalayjian
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1742: the famous dome atop Saint Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, is fractured and threatened with collapse. The dome is the pride of Italy and the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. And no one knows how to fix it. This engaging and colorful narrative tells the overlooked story of how Michelangelo's Dome was saved from disaster by three mathematicians and Pope Benedict XIV, who had asked them for help.
By: Wayne Kalayjian
-
Putin's Sledgehammer
- The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos
- By: Candace Rondeaux
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 2023, the Wagner Group assembled an armed convoy that included tanks and rocket launchers and set out on what seemed like a journey to take control of Moscow. The last person to attempt such a venture was Adolf Hitler. Wagner’s power began from patronage, then grew from international theft and extortion, until it was so great it exposed the weakness of Russia’s conventional military and became a threat to the Russian state, one that was not demonstrably eliminated until a private jet containing Wagner’s core commanders was blown up in midair.
By: Candace Rondeaux
-
Ground Combat
- Puncturing the Myths of Modern War
- By: Ben Connable
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ground Combat reveals the gritty details of land warfare at the tactical level and challenges today's overly subjective and often inaccurate approaches to characterizing war. Ben Connable's motivation for writing the book is to offer an evidence-based approach to examining the future of war.
By: Ben Connable
-
Decent Interval (25th Anniversary Edition)
- An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam
- By: Frank Snepp, Gloria Emerson - foreword
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 32 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Widely regarded as a classic on the Vietnam War, Decent Interval provides a scathing critique of the CIA's role in and final departure from that conflict. Still the most detailed and respected account of America's final days in Vietnam, the book was written at great risk and ultimately at great sacrifice by an author who believed in the CIA's cause but was disillusioned by the agency's treacherous withdrawal, leaving thousands of Vietnamese allies to the mercy of an angry enemy.
By: Frank Snepp, and others
-
War Without Mercy
- Liberty or Death in the American Revolution
- By: Mark Edward Lender, Professor James Kirby Martin
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This engrossing history of the Revolutionary War conclusively shows that those caught up in it believed they had nothing to lose by fighting without regard for the rules of so-called “civilized warfare.” The clarion call to arms “Liberty or Death” was far more than just rhetoric. At its grimmest level, it was a conflict in which military restraint was more the exception than the rule, a struggle in which combatants believed their very existence was in question.
By: Mark Edward Lender, and others
-
The Houdini Club
- The Epic Journey and Daring Escapes of the First Army Rangers of WWII
- By: Mir Bahmanyar
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Houdini Club captures the personal drama of World War II Special Forces warfare. The men of maverick Colonel William O. Darby's Rangers had abundant tales of glory, yes, but also tales of misery, fear, and murderous intent. Then, there was the utter exhaustion contrasted by the thrill of combat, the devastating final battle that all but destroyed them, and the ingenuity and sheer determination that made the highly vaunted German Afrika Korps and veteran German Parachute and Panzer units marvel at their guerilla tactics and their prison breakouts.
By: Mir Bahmanyar
-
Saving Michelangelo’s Dome
- How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution
- By: Wayne Kalayjian
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1742: the famous dome atop Saint Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo, is fractured and threatened with collapse. The dome is the pride of Italy and the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. And no one knows how to fix it. This engaging and colorful narrative tells the overlooked story of how Michelangelo's Dome was saved from disaster by three mathematicians and Pope Benedict XIV, who had asked them for help.
By: Wayne Kalayjian
-
Putin's Sledgehammer
- The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos
- By: Candace Rondeaux
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In June 2023, the Wagner Group assembled an armed convoy that included tanks and rocket launchers and set out on what seemed like a journey to take control of Moscow. The last person to attempt such a venture was Adolf Hitler. Wagner’s power began from patronage, then grew from international theft and extortion, until it was so great it exposed the weakness of Russia’s conventional military and became a threat to the Russian state, one that was not demonstrably eliminated until a private jet containing Wagner’s core commanders was blown up in midair.
By: Candace Rondeaux
-
Ground Combat
- Puncturing the Myths of Modern War
- By: Ben Connable
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ground Combat reveals the gritty details of land warfare at the tactical level and challenges today's overly subjective and often inaccurate approaches to characterizing war. Ben Connable's motivation for writing the book is to offer an evidence-based approach to examining the future of war.
By: Ben Connable
-
Decent Interval (25th Anniversary Edition)
- An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam
- By: Frank Snepp, Gloria Emerson - foreword
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 32 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Widely regarded as a classic on the Vietnam War, Decent Interval provides a scathing critique of the CIA's role in and final departure from that conflict. Still the most detailed and respected account of America's final days in Vietnam, the book was written at great risk and ultimately at great sacrifice by an author who believed in the CIA's cause but was disillusioned by the agency's treacherous withdrawal, leaving thousands of Vietnamese allies to the mercy of an angry enemy.
By: Frank Snepp, and others
-
War Without Mercy
- Liberty or Death in the American Revolution
- By: Mark Edward Lender, Professor James Kirby Martin
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This engrossing history of the Revolutionary War conclusively shows that those caught up in it believed they had nothing to lose by fighting without regard for the rules of so-called “civilized warfare.” The clarion call to arms “Liberty or Death” was far more than just rhetoric. At its grimmest level, it was a conflict in which military restraint was more the exception than the rule, a struggle in which combatants believed their very existence was in question.
By: Mark Edward Lender, and others
-
The Houdini Club
- The Epic Journey and Daring Escapes of the First Army Rangers of WWII
- By: Mir Bahmanyar
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Houdini Club captures the personal drama of World War II Special Forces warfare. The men of maverick Colonel William O. Darby's Rangers had abundant tales of glory, yes, but also tales of misery, fear, and murderous intent. Then, there was the utter exhaustion contrasted by the thrill of combat, the devastating final battle that all but destroyed them, and the ingenuity and sheer determination that made the highly vaunted German Afrika Korps and veteran German Parachute and Panzer units marvel at their guerilla tactics and their prison breakouts.
By: Mir Bahmanyar
-
The Work of Empire
- War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines
- By: Justin F. Jackson
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1898, on the eve of the Spanish-American War, the US Army seemed minuscule and ill-equipped for global conflict. Yet over the next fifteen years, its soldiers defeated Spain and pacified nationalist insurgencies in both Cuba and the Philippines. Despite their lack of experience in colonial administration, American troops also ruled and transformed the daily lives of the 8 million people who inhabited these tropical islands.
-
Masters of Mayhem
- Lawrence of Arabia and the British Military Mission to the Hejaz
- By: James Stejskal
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Striking where the enemy is weakest and melting away into the darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force directly, but using audacity and surprise to confound and demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence, area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning, and executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors—this is unconventional warfare.
By: James Stejskal
-
The Raider
- The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II
- By: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Raider, Cundill Prize-winning historian Stephen R. Platt gives us the first authoritative account of Carlson’s larger-than-life exploits: the real story, based on years of research including newly discovered diaries and correspondence in English and Chinese, with deep insight into the conflicted idealism about the Chinese Communists that would prove Carlson’s undoing in the McCarthy era. Tracing the rise and fall of an unlikely American war hero, The Raider is a story of exploration, of cultural (mis)understanding, and of one man’s awakening to the sheer breadth of the world.
-
-
Outstanding book about a unknown hero
- By Scott Brownell on 05-20-25
By: Stephen R. Platt
-
The Great Betrayal
- The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East
- By: Fawaz A. Gerges
- Narrated by: Keval Shah
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Middle East is in upheaval: a widening chasm between state and society, the failure of governing elites to address citizens' genuine grievances, massive economic mismanagement—all made worse by repeated interventions by Western powers. Why has political change been so difficult to achieve? In The Great Betrayal, Fawaz Gerges argues that the convergence of political authoritarianism, meddling by the West, and the effects of prolonged regional conflicts have produced political paralysis and economic stagnation.
By: Fawaz A. Gerges
-
Queen of All Mayhem
- The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the Most Dangerous Woman in the West
- By: Dane Huckelbridge
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 3, 1889, just two days shy of her forty-first birthday, Myra Maybelle Shirley—better known at that point by her outlaw sobriquet “Belle Starr”—was blown from her horse saddle and killed by a pair of shotgun blasts, delivered by an unseen assailant, only a few miles away from her home in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. Thus ended the life of one of the most colorful, authentic, and dangerous women in the history of the American West.
-
Maria Theresa
- Empress: The Making of the Austrian Enlightenment
- By: Richard Bassett
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 20 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maria Theresa was the single most powerful woman in eighteenth-century Europe. At the age of just twenty-three she succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every power in Europe. In this engrossing biography, Richard Bassett traces Maria Theresa's life and complex legacy. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources, Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance, innovative ideas on free trade and finance, and studied reluctance to resort to policies of territorial expansion.
By: Richard Bassett
-
1861
- The Lost Peace
- By: Jay Winik
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1861: The Lost Peace is the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions.
By: Jay Winik
-
Scorched Earth
- A Global History of World War II
- By: Paul Thomas Chamberlin
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 23 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In popular memory, the Second World War was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, marking the demise of the age of empires and the triumph of an American-led democratic order. In Scorched Earth, historian Paul Thomas Chamberlin dispatches the myth of World War II as a good war. Instead, he depicts the conflict as it truly was: a massive battle beset by vicious racial atrocities, fought between rival empires across huge stretches of Asia and Europe.
-
Zbig
- The Life and Times of Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet
- By: Edward Luce
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 23 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An intimate and masterful biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski—President Carter’s national security advisor and one of America’s leading geopolitical thinkers—from one of the finest columnists and political writers at work today.
-
-
The writing was impeccable
- By Nathan King on 05-22-25
By: Edward Luce
-
In the Ghost Shadows
- The Untold Story of Chinatown's Most Powerful Crime Boss
- By: Peter Chin, Everett De Morier - contributor
- Narrated by: Austin Ku
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They were the most powerful gang in Chinatown. Like the notorious crime families of the Italian Mob, the Asian youth gang known as the Ghost Shadows carved out their own territory in New York's underworld and ruled those streets for decades. Their leader Peter Chin, a young immigrant from the outskirts of Hong Kong, not only found a new family among his fellow gang members but became one of the two most powerful men in Chinatown's history at that time. For the first time ever, the former leader of the Ghost Shadows breaks his silence in this tell-all to author Everett De Morier
By: Peter Chin, and others
-
Plato and the Tyrant
- The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece
- By: James Romm
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato to show how a philosopher helped topple the leading Greek power of the era: the opulent city of Syracuse. There, Plato encountered two authoritarian rulers, a father and son both named Dionysius, and tried to steer them toward philosophy. At the same time, he worked on his masterpiece, Republic, in which he conceived a ruler who unites perfect wisdom with absolute power.
By: James Romm
-
The Last Great Dream
- How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties
- By: Dennis McNally
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fascinating, far-reaching, and definitive, THE LAST GREAT DREAM is the ultimate guide to a generation-defining countercultural movement, an Underground 101 course for newcomers and aficionados alike.
By: Dennis McNally