Product Description

In the first complete history of the War of 1812 written from a British perspective, Jon Latimer offers an authoritative and compelling account that places the conflict in its strategic context within the Napoleonic wars. The British viewed the War of 1812 as an ill-fated attempt by the young American republic to annex Canada. For British Canada, populated by many loyalists who had fled the American Revolution, this was a war for survival. The Americans aimed both to assert their nationhood on the global stage and to expand their territory northward and westward.Americans would later find in this war many iconic moments in their national story - the bombardment of Fort McHenry (the inspiration for Francis Scott Key's "Star Spangled Banner"); the Battle of Lake Erie; the burning of Washington; the death of Tecumseh; Andrew Jackson's victory at New Orleans - but their war of conquest was ultimately a failure. Even the issues of neutrality and impressment that had triggered the war were not resolved in the peace treaty. For Britain, the war was subsumed under a long conflict to stop Napoleon and to preserve the empire. The one lasting result of the war was in Canada, where the British victory eliminated the threat of American conquest, and set Canadians on the road toward confederation.Latimer describes events not merely through the eyes of generals, admirals, and politicians but through those of the soldiers, sailors, and ordinary people who were directly affected. Drawing on personal letters, diaries, and memoirs, he crafts an intimate narrative that marches the reader into the heat of battle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194407 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 656 pages

-Paul Johnson, Literary Review, 1 October 2007
"Latimer has now provided a full account, mainly from the British standpoint and
often using British sources hitherto disregarded by American historian. It is a very
creditably effort and a substantial volume."

About the Author
Jon Latimer is the author of several books on military history, including Alamein (Harvard).

Customer Reviews

Honest and v readable history
This is the first British account of the Anglo - American war of 1812 written fot a long time. It was very readable and honest. It clearly sets out to change the opinion of the war (largely American - it is even less well known outside of America) as another War Of Independence and a conflict that was a clear American victory against British aggression. The author shows that the war was started by the Americans and their aims to improve their naval / sailors rights and to grab land of Canada were both failures. The British got v little out of the war either - apart from a lot of casualties and a lot of debt. The Americans put up some pretty stuiff resistance against the British and Canadians - Britain herself was embroiled in the latter stages of the Napoleonic War at the time - a conflict that must have seemed like a 20th century world war. The author puts the War of 1812 in the much wider contect of the Napoleonic Wars and treats it as an interesting sideshow to that event. The American navy did particularly well against its much more powerful adversary.

Up to now I have read several books on the War of 1812 - all I beleive written by Americans - some general books on the entire conflict and one about the British defeat at New Orleans. This book has redressed the balance that I got from these books which tended to hero worship the Americans - particularly the futurer President Andrew Jackson who comes across in this book as not altogether pleasant and a bit of a war monger.

This is a great book and I hope it is read by a lot of Napoleonic / War of 1812 ehthusiasts.

Will they ever write a book that tels the proper story of this war!
Let's put these points right first, The Americans got nothing out of this war not even the issues they went to war for were given to them, Britain got to retain Canada, all fishing rights, all sea rights including still stopping Yankee ships to search for deserters, they burned the white house down and won far more victories them the America's could dream about. All at a time when we were fighting for our lives against France and Napoleon and his allies. The American army was driven out of Crown lands 10 times and they did not control any of the British territories at the end of the war. This is embarrassing to say the least!
All they can go on about is one battle when the war ended, a fire and light show that gave birth to there national anthem, and a lake battle of old ships, the truth. Yet again propaganda for the American masses. Sad really. This could have been a good book, but agin came up short, money talks truth does not.

Learnt a lot bu sometimes confusing
I am quarter way into book when I got Swine Flu, just getting over it now, and going to start to read the book again.
Whilst reading the book i had to keep note of who is who, as you forget who is on who side. The ships get confusing as well, thankfully sometimes the author state HMS before the Ship Name.
The author sometimes jumps from one period of history to another period, when he wants to introduce another element to the story.
I am enjoying the book as this is a period of English history that I do not know much about. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book.