1812

Posted by Joseph Allen McCullough Apr 13, 2008

I have always been a fan of history. In school it was my favourite subject. I was especially fond of American, British, and military history, and in college I took a two semester course on the history of American warfare. Thus, it is surprising that I could come through school and have so little knowledge about the War of 1812. I guess I knew what most educated Americans knew: the White House got burned, the National Anthem got written, and Andrew Jackson thrashed the British at the Battle of New Orleans. I had some vague notion that it all started because of a dispute about the British impressing American sailors.

Recently there has been a lot of talk in military history circles about the new book 1812: War with America by Jon Latimer. Although an expensive purchase, I just couldn’t resist when I saw it in Waterstones this week.

I’m only a few chapters in, but already most of what I thought I knew has had to be revised. Latimer argues that the main cause of the war was America making a play for Canada. On the other side, the British really didn’t want to have anything to do with fighting America. They were already fully committed to fighting Napoleon in Spain, and much of that army was being supplied from the US.

The first few chapters are very well written, and I am looking forward to continuing to fill this rather large hole in my knowledge of the history of my home country and my country-in-law.