The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition

This is a solid work on the War of 1812 that covers the political and social events of the period more than the battles and campaigns. Of the 309 pages of text, divided into eleven chapters plus an introduction, only three of the chapters (100 pages) cover the land campaigns, the war at sea, and the war on the lakes. Unfortunately, that coverage does not help anyone who wishes to study a military history of the war.The book is competently done, but it is not a definitive history of the war and could, and probably should, have been longer. The author's stated premise, however, was to produce a political and social history of the war and that mission was accomplished very well. Such subjects as the Baltimore Riots of 1812, the causes of the war (in some depth) and the Hartford Convention are very well done, are quite informative, and are sufficient to give the reader a solid basis in those subjects. Further, the author covers the problems that the Democratic-Republicans (confusingly referred to as just `Republicans' in the volume) under Jefferson caused the country, and the country's economy, with their fervent anti-British ideology and hostility to any and all regular military forces in the United States, especially towards the US Navy.This is not a military history in the true sense and marks a definite difference between actual military histories (such as John Elting's work on the War of 1812, Amateurs, To Arms! which was published about a year after this volume), and has little to do with the actual marching and killing that is involved in fighting wars. Little attention is paid to the weaponry used by the belligerents, as on pages 79-80, and the importance that is hinted at in that short passage of the rifle over the period musket is interesting, if misguided and not born out by the evidence in combat operations, especially at New Orleans in late 1814-early 1815. Further, credit is given to Eli Whitney for the development of the idea of interchangeable parts, when that concept was alive and well, and working, in Europe from at least 1753. Further, the long-accepted story, which is probably apocryphal, that the color of the West Point dress uniforms, `cadet gray' was adopted from the US victory at the Battle of Chippawa in 1814 is given credence here again, unfortunately.As an almost throw-away comment, the author mentions that Napoleon's retreat from Russia `soon turned into a rout' which careful examination of plentiful source material in English renders incorrect. Napoleon's Grande Armee suffered crippling losses (as did the Russians) but they also fought their way out of Russia in late November 1812.There are also two sources listed in the book as being `useful' without critique: Benson J. Lossing's The Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812 (from which the `cadet gray' comment was taken) and George Gleig's A Subaltern in America, Compromising His Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army...during the Late War. Both of these volumes are listed elsewhere as having problems with accuracy in the text and needed to be used with caution.Further, labeling Theodore Roosevelt's The Naval War of 1812 as `the best account of the war at sea' I would heartily disagree with. CS Forrester's The Age of Fighting Sail is much better and more accurate and ties the naval operations with land operations, and with the war on the lakes, that is critical to understanding the importance of the North American lake complex. Lastly, the mention of Alfred Mahan's Sea Power and Its Relations to the War of 1812 at first look is excellent, but going into the subject in any depth shows it to be somewhat superficial and it is not an in-depth study.Overall, however, this is a very good overview of the War of 1812 and is valuable from that respect. Again, it is not a military history of the war, and the above mentioned work by John Elting, as well as the excellent War of 1812 by Henry Adams, are much better for that type of study.

This book was compiled based upon excellent research. It is, in my opinion, the most thorough coverage of the War of 1812. I first purchased the initial copy of this book back in the late 1980s. (In fact,that copy was purchased from the Chicago Historical Society bookstore and is a signed copy.) This book is a good update to that one.All the major events of the War of 1812 are covered, not just the military actions which have three chapters of coverage. Yes, the actions in Congress, the dissent of the Federalists, the Baltimore riots, the Hartford meeting (when the New England Federalists came together initially to discuss secession from the Union due to this war) are all covered. All the military actions are covered although some of them are given short shrift in my opinion. This is especially true of the military actions in the Old Northwest (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois) which are covered very quickly. For example, Zachary Taylor's and unit's defense of a fort in Indiana are given one sentence; Fort Sandusky defense is given a paragraph; and the Fort Meigs defense are given a couple of paragraphs.The author spends a lot more time on the naval actions, including the privateers, which are an interesting element of this book, and actions on Lake Erie, Lake Champlain and the frigate actions (e.g. USS Constitution). I guess arguably these are probably considered more important to the final result, but the author also spends chapters on the actions of the US Congress, and related events. It would have been good if more time was spent on the Old Northwest events - and maybe a new book should be written on this alone - a suggestion to this or other authors.In spite of this one criticism, I due recommend this book for anyone interested in US History. After all, in spite of the fact that this is "a forgotten conflict", many important events came from this conflict including the creation of our national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner (the actual flag at Fort McHenry in Baltimore is housed in the Smithsonian's American History museum), and the only time that our capital was taken with the White House and Congress burned to a shell. This book, in my opinion, has the best overall coverage of the War of 1812 - it is most thorough and best researched book on this war.

At first: sorry for my eventually bad english. I can read english texts pretty well, but since I don't write that much in english I might make a few mistakes. Also I want to mention that I review the Bicentennial Edition of this book.This book gives you a very good overview of this "forgotten" Conflict. Another reviewer criticized that you don't get to know anything about military maneuver and/or insights of common soldier. While this is true, it is not at all what the author wanted, that's why it is in my opinion wrong to judge him for that. In his Preface he already mentions, that there was/is no lack of articles and books written about this conflict, but they mainly focus on the military aspects of the war. That's why he wanted to take a broader view of the war. Since he also takes a look at the political struggles in the congress and senat, for example for raising money for the war or peace negotiations, he spends a lesser amount on the battles. Of course he also mentions every major military confrontation, but even the bigger ones like the battle of New Orleans are discussed in about two pages.As you can see he takes a pretty broad view on the war and so none of these aspects gets discussed in every detail, but that would have been an impossible task. So, as I said, in my opinion he wants to give the reader an overview of this conflict and makes a pretty good job by doing so. Another thing that should be known about this book is that it focus on the American perspective. I would have liked to get to know more about the British/Canadian views and struggles, but since he is an American author I guess this is understandble.For readers who want to get a deeper insight of on of the aspects of the conflict he has written a final chapter where he mentions a lot of works and sources to nearly every aspect of the war. People who are more interessted in the battles for example should take a view on books about special confrotations like David E. Graves "Where Right an Glory Lead"(about the Battle of Lundy's Lane) or "A Very Brilliant Affair"(Battle of Queenston Heights). Although I didn't read it yet I guess that the book "The incredible War of 1812 (- A military history)" takes a bigger focus on the battles too, while not concentrating on only one Battle.So as final word, i like to say that if you are interested in the War of 1812, this is a good book to start from. When you, after that, want to get more informations on a special subject, his last chapter gives you a good overlook of works you can go on with.