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Review
“Remarkable and deeply researched. . . . Taylor masterfully captures the strangeness of this war.”
—Gordon S. Wood, The New York Review of Books
“Easily the most sophisticated book ever written about a conflict that is often either neglected or seriously misunderstood. . . . Taylor’s discussions of diplomatic and political maneuvering are woven with military set-pieces into a powerful narrative. . . . [This] book affirms his gifts for prodigious research.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Credit Taylor with blowing most of the dust off America’s most forgotten war. This is history with a capital H.”
—The Seattle Times
“A truly spellbinding narrative. Unlike other books on the War of 1812, [Taylor’s] is about the hearts and minds of the people who planned it, fought it and lived through it. Almost every page brings a revelation.”
—The Toronto Star
“In this deeply researched and clearly written book, [Taylor] tells the riveting story of a war that redefined North America.”
—The Washington Times
“Comprehensive. . . . Taylor’s account of a land war that roughly divided people with a common culture and heritage provides a new dimension for an understanding of 1812.”
—The Boston Globe
“An impressively accessible history. . . . A perceptively nuanced take on a war often forgotten or misunderstood. . . . Taylor offers persuasive arguments, a lively narrative.”
—Richmond Times Dispatch
“Taylor gives a fascinating account of the war and shows its importance to the fragile new republic in a book filled with stories about the people who instigated, commanded and fought in the conflict.”
—The Associated Press
“Taylor serves up a corrective in [this] fact-laden account. . . . Nicely captures the confusion of a ‘minor’ war with major consequences.”
—The Newark Star-Ledger
“Taylor’s beautifully written book offers a War of 1812 that’s no longer an insignificant afterthought to the American Revolution, but its final, decisive act.”
—Maclean’s
“As is his talented wont, Taylor puts the war into perspective, positing that it redefined the North American continent.”
—Asbury Park Press (New Jersey)
“Thoroughly researched. . . . Taylor illuminates an arena generally omitted from military histories of the war. Battles and campaigns do connect his account, however, which will stand history collections in good stead for a very long while.”
—Booklist
From the Trade Paperback edition.
—Gordon S. Wood, The New York Review of Books
“Easily the most sophisticated book ever written about a conflict that is often either neglected or seriously misunderstood. . . . Taylor’s discussions of diplomatic and political maneuvering are woven with military set-pieces into a powerful narrative. . . . [This] book affirms his gifts for prodigious research.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Credit Taylor with blowing most of the dust off America’s most forgotten war. This is history with a capital H.”
—The Seattle Times
“A truly spellbinding narrative. Unlike other books on the War of 1812, [Taylor’s] is about the hearts and minds of the people who planned it, fought it and lived through it. Almost every page brings a revelation.”
—The Toronto Star
“In this deeply researched and clearly written book, [Taylor] tells the riveting story of a war that redefined North America.”
—The Washington Times
“Comprehensive. . . . Taylor’s account of a land war that roughly divided people with a common culture and heritage provides a new dimension for an understanding of 1812.”
—The Boston Globe
“An impressively accessible history. . . . A perceptively nuanced take on a war often forgotten or misunderstood. . . . Taylor offers persuasive arguments, a lively narrative.”
—Richmond Times Dispatch
“Taylor gives a fascinating account of the war and shows its importance to the fragile new republic in a book filled with stories about the people who instigated, commanded and fought in the conflict.”
—The Associated Press
“Taylor serves up a corrective in [this] fact-laden account. . . . Nicely captures the confusion of a ‘minor’ war with major consequences.”
—The Newark Star-Ledger
“Taylor’s beautifully written book offers a War of 1812 that’s no longer an insignificant afterthought to the American Revolution, but its final, decisive act.”
—Maclean’s
“As is his talented wont, Taylor puts the war into perspective, positing that it redefined the North American continent.”
—Asbury Park Press (New Jersey)
“Thoroughly researched. . . . Taylor illuminates an arena generally omitted from military histories of the war. Battles and campaigns do connect his account, however, which will stand history collections in good stead for a very long while.”
—Booklist
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Product Description
In this deeply researched and clearly written book, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Alan Taylor tells the riveting story of a war that redefined North America. During the early nineteenth century, Britons and Americans renewed their struggle over the legacy of the American Revolution. Soldiers, immigrants, settlers, and Indians fought in a northern borderland to determine the fate of a continent. Would revolutionary republicanism sweep the British from Canada? Or would the British empire contain, divide, and ruin the shaky American republic?
In a world of double identities, slippery allegiances, and porous boundaries, the leaders of the republic and of the empire struggled to control their own diverse peoples. The border divided Americans—former Loyalists and Patriots—who fought on both sides in the new war, as did native peoples defending their homelands. Serving in both armies, Irish immigrants battled one another, reaping charges of rebellion and treason. And dissident Americans flirted with secession while aiding the British as smugglers and spies.
During the war, both sides struggled to sustain armies in a northern land of immense forests, vast lakes, and stark seasonal swings in the weather. In that environment, many soldiers panicked as they fought their own vivid imaginations, which cast Indians as bloodthirsty savages. After fighting each other to a standstill, the Americans and the British concluded that they could safely share the continent along a border that favored the United States at the expense of Canadians and Indians. Both sides then celebrated victory by forgetting their losses and by betraying the native peoples.
A vivid narrative of an often brutal (and sometimes comic) war that reveals much about the tangled origins of the United States and Canada.
In a world of double identities, slippery allegiances, and porous boundaries, the leaders of the republic and of the empire struggled to control their own diverse peoples. The border divided Americans—former Loyalists and Patriots—who fought on both sides in the new war, as did native peoples defending their homelands. Serving in both armies, Irish immigrants battled one another, reaping charges of rebellion and treason. And dissident Americans flirted with secession while aiding the British as smugglers and spies.
During the war, both sides struggled to sustain armies in a northern land of immense forests, vast lakes, and stark seasonal swings in the weather. In that environment, many soldiers panicked as they fought their own vivid imaginations, which cast Indians as bloodthirsty savages. After fighting each other to a standstill, the Americans and the British concluded that they could safely share the continent along a border that favored the United States at the expense of Canadians and Indians. Both sides then celebrated victory by forgetting their losses and by betraying the native peoples.
A vivid narrative of an often brutal (and sometimes comic) war that reveals much about the tangled origins of the United States and Canada.
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Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Balanced Magisterial Account,
By
This review is from: The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (Hardcover)
I am much impressed by this book. Most accounts of this war are, wow, we won (speaking as a Canadian) against superior numbers. Critical of the American efforts and leadership, Taylor nonetheless points out the difficulties their forces had with respect to logistics. The Canadian and British forces as long as they controlled the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes had no problems with supply. The British navy did lose the Battle of Lake Erie (perhaps on account of their captains's infatuation with a pretty widow - a story not told here but to be found in Egerton Ryerson's account) and consequently could not hang on to Detroit and the Territory of Michigan.The British also had the advantage of better trained troops,skilled with the bayonet.Americans tend to remember Andrew Jackson's victory at New Orleans, which in fact took place after the Peace had been signed. The Americans won the peace, that Taylor carefully explains. The losers were the Indians. Tecumseh, the charismatic Swannee chief had managed to build an alliance of the Indian nations. This fell apart when he was killed in this war (as a consequence of the loss of the Battle of Lake Erie) and the British were unable to give the the Indians the support they needed if the British grand strategy of a balance of power between the British, the American, and Indian nations was to be maintained. The United States was able to pick off the Indian peoples one by one after this war. Still the fact remains that the United States attempted to invade and conquer Canada and were repulsed at every effort. Not a square foot of Canada was taken. Taylor's thesis is that it was really a civil war like the American Revolution. (He does not go into Ryerson's thesis that the split between the Loyalists and the Patriots began with the arrival of the Massachusetts Bay colony across the bay from Plymouth Rock in 1629. From the beginning, in contrast to the Plymouth Rock colony, the Bay colony were disloyal to the Crown, intolerant of other religions, and hostile to the Indians.)
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A new look at the war of 1812,
This review is from: The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (Hardcover)
A refreshingly new, impartial, in depth review of the war, the characters both military and civil, high and low who participtated with a most interesting and logical interpretation of it as an extention of the American Revolution. Well written and easy to read this is a must read for anyone interested in the origins of both Canada and the United States and why they developed the way they did.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shining light on little known facts,
This review is from: The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (Hardcover)
There's a great deal to be learned about a relatively obscure part of Canadian history, namely how Canada was settled and why, and how this played into the conflict. For Americans who know relatively little about the rivalry between the Republicans and Federalists, there is equally compelling content about how the US didn't simply emerge from the Revolution with a common sense of nationhood and identity, but struggled for decades to find them. For today's US libertarians, there are lessons to be learned that even with the anti-tax sentiment of the Republicans, they were hardly libertarian in the treatment of non-whites, but rank interventionists. But for readers of almost any persuasion or inclination, there are some incredible insights gained, like how David Parish of Ogdensburg, NY helped finance the US war effort while undermining any prospects for victory through the concessions he obtained from the Madison Administration to keep the upper St. Lawrence from becoming a major invasion front despite its enormous strategic importance.
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