Customer Reviews

1812

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is quite simply the best history book I've ever read, whether it's non-fiction, a textbook, or historical fiction (as this one is), regardless of the time period or country involved. The book goes very in-depth on the War of 1812 and hits you with constant facts, but you'll never be bored. It's all presented in story format with lots of dialogue that isn't really very stilted or different from our own. It sounds more like ours when we're just trying to sound good. The descriptive passages are exciting and easy to read.

Six main people make up the fabric of this novel: Pres. James and Dolly Madison are in Washington, D.C., running the country and throwing Dolley's famous political balls. The excitement as Dolley runs from the burning White House is tangible. Next, is Andrew and Rachel Jackson, first at home in Nashville, TN, and then with Andrew on the warfront. First, he battles the Seminole Indians in Florida and eventually takes on the British in New Orleans. Finally, Winfield Scott leads his troops in amazing land victories while getting occasional visits from his Washington girlfriend, the daughter of a newspaper magnate and the only main fictional character in the novel.

This book makes you realize, for the first time, what war truly is. It isn't dropping bombs from the air on nameless and faceless people. It's seeing your enemy eye-to-eye, and occasionally fighting him hand-to-hand for the sake of your country's survival, amid political turmoil and threat of secession. Remember: War is hell! This book is heaven!

At times absorbing, at times uneven. Nearly always well researched and smacking of authenticity.

This novel has a lot of ground to cover. The author divides time, nearly evenly, between private lives, diplomacy, and combat for all the key players of the war. He also divides the time evenly between conflicts in the North and in the South. Nevin treads between history documentary and steamy mini-series innuendo and nearly pulls it off entirely. These two areas are difficult to bring together. Alternately, I would long to return to the combat theater while the author waxes on the domestic trials of Rachael Donnelson Jackson, or wish to read more about Sally McQuirks early femminist character while the author was steeped in documenting Jackson's sweep of the south. Oh well.

None the less the novel was engrossing and a pleasure. Its biggest downfall was that the Treaty of Ghent was completely ignored! There was quite a group of personalities involved in that roe. They would would have fit in well with Nevin's saga. Perhaps his next historical novel can examine the picadillios that occurred in that lowlands city.

I rank this book ALMOST as good as The Killer Angels, and right up there with Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure. Nevin did an excellent job of making a page-turner novel based on a segment of American history that I think most Americans don't know much about. I've lent the book out to friends who have also loved it.

I passed this book 3-4 times before I decided to pick it up, and that was only because nothing else looked interesting. I have tried to read American history books, but they bored me. It was with some trepidation, then, that I started this book. I found, however, that once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. David Nevin took an obscure time in the history of America, and wrapped a fascinating story around it. Did you know that James Madison was a short man with a low self-esteem? or that andrew Jackson was hot-tempered but brilliant military tactician? Read about the burning of the White House, and how America turned the tide of the war by winning two major battles, one on Lake Champlain, and the other in New Orleans. This is one of my all time favorite books.It is written in a style that entertains and educates the reader. I learned more about the War of 1812 than I did in school. It should be manditory reading for all students taking American History. I do not usually read a book more than once, but I know this book will be read and reread.

I'm just going to keep this short and sweet: 1812 is a fabulous book! I read it over a year ago and I still rave about it to anyone who will listen!! My brother and I bought it as part of a gift for our father but he never got it because neither of us could put it down. We read it so many times the jacket is ruined. Whether you're a history buff, just someone who likes to read, or someone who wants to be reminded why they should be proud to be an American, you won't regret picking up this book. It is so down to earth, so real, and so vibrant you can't help but be moved by arguably the most important yet little remembered war in America's history, and the people who believed in America enough to win it against all odds. Beautiful book.

Sally. Joseph Loves Jenny etc.

This historical soap opera starts with a lots of tumescence then settles down to tell a true story.

The events are true, most of the characters are real. Most of the dialogue, the conversation are decidely not. No matter, as they serve to advance the history going on around them & the history that they are making.

There are several important venues: Washington D.C., Where President & Dolly Madison preside in the White House, Canada, northern New York & the Lake Champlain area where key naval battles are fought & the south particularly New Orleans, where General Andrew Jackson is making his name. The unabridged tape is long as is the book, but I was not bored. It is told like a novel rather than straight history.

This story is the coming out of America, more united than ever. The reasons for the war, trade & the impressment of American sailors was quickly resolved by the very act of war. However, the conclusion reached by many history books is that this was a useless war. In fact, it may not be much more than a footnote in the history of the British Empire. Bigger things were happening in Europe that overwhelmed the War of 1812 in interest.

The nation was expanding rapidly & several states had been admitted to the union west of the Appalachins. The ballance of power in the United States was moving west. Ironically the larger the country grew in size the more united, we became with a real sense of identity. The arrogance of the British in buring down the capitol for no military gain united Americans like no other single act could have.

The British could not have won. They were trying to defeat a continential nation. For what? Wellington, one of the greatest military leaders of all time knew this & said so. The British people were fed up with the taxes used to finance an unwinnable war.

For the United States, The War of 1812 proved the Revoltionary War now 30 years old. Jackson defeated British regulars soundly at New Orleans. The war was already over but they didn't know that. It still was important to note that the United States would have to be reckoned with in the future. Highly recommended.

I truly enjoy reading about the colonial period of our nation and had considered myself to be quite well versed on the subject. This book however presented some interesting, and new to me, insight into the condition and feeling in the nation these few short years after the revolution. Highly recommend it.

I read this book last year and I loved it. 1812 is ofcourse
about the War of 1812 mostly from the point of view of James
Madison, Andrew Jackson and a young Winfield Scott. It talks
about battles such as Horseshoe Bend(Andrew Jackson's battle
with the Creek Indians), Plattsburgh(the battle between the
Americans and British for control of the Great Lakes), Lundy's
Lane(Winfield Scott's battle with the british near niagara falls)
and New Orleans(Andrew Jackson's famous battle where he defeated
the British weeks after the treaty Ghent had been signed ending
the war). It also talks about how Washington D.C. fell but spends more time on the events leading up to James and Dolly Madison fleeing the capitol. Although it comes up shallow on the
true views Andrew Jackson held about Native Americans and doesnt
go into the real motivations of the Indians uprising during that
war because it would make the the characters and the war look less heroic. Yet like Jeff Shaara's Civil War novels it is a quick and easy read that will entertain and inform you at the same time. Hopefully somebody in Hollywood will make this book
into a movie. P.S. My favorite part is when Dolly Madison dances
a jig on a British flag in front of Congress.

If you do not already know something about the War of 1812, I cannot recommend this book for your reading pleasure. Why not? The author, David Nevin, goes into the story without much of an explanation of who the characters are and just assumes you know who they are. I would have recommended a small two to three page introduction that laid out the issues of the day and something about the personalities of the day as well.

Instead, we spend page after page getting these introductions as a part of the story. Along the way, Nevin introduces us to the innermost thoughts of such people as James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Winfield Scott and Dolley Madison. Nevin seems fascinated in exploring each of these characters as sexual beings. We get to read about James Madison's lusting for Dolley (he refers to her breasts so often that I blush when I see Madison in my history book).

However, the book is saved by his descriptions of the battles. They are very well done.

If you don't know your War of 1812, be sure to keep your computer handy so you can check the 'net to learn the background material to the things Nevin is referring to.

The War of 1812 is rarely accorded the importance it deserves as a seminal event in America's history. It brought the U.S. to the forefront of world events and showed the willingness of Americans to defend their rights on the world stage. Nevin applies his knowledge of the event and its participants to the task of explaining the war's importance with mixed results. James Madison and his wife Dolly come off well as Nevein shows "Little Jimmy's" rising to the occasion bolstered by Dolly's fierce and loving determination. Winfield Scott comes to the forefront as a soldier who changes the way the U.S. looks at tactics, but serves, oddly, as a love interest for an imaginary character. Andrew Jackson gets a bit too much time as the raging lunatic who is calmed by his wife's gentle influence. I don't find fault so much with the presentation of Jackson as it took away from Madison and Dolly, who I found to be the more intriguing pair.

That being said, it is the battle scenes that really make this book one of interest. New Orleans has been discussed a multitude of times but Nevin makes it fresh and the battles on the Niagra frontier were vividly presented. Here Niven's obviously strong research truly comes to light. 1812 may be a novel but it is one of excellent insight, occasionally plagued by melodrama, but worth the time of any fan of this genre.