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59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A national identity is formed, December 31, 2004
1812: The War That Forged A Nation, by Walter R. Borneman, is a comprehensive, if somewhat superficial, look at the war that gave the United States a national identity, even as it ended in essentially a stalemate. Borneman is mostly known for history books dealing with the western United States, and he even mentions in his Acknowledgements how this book seems to be out of his field. However, Borneman maintains that the war set the United States on a course that would result in the western expansion that is his bread and butter, and thus deserves to be looked at more closely. It's a very interesting book that covers the entire war that tells everything that happened, though it doesn't quite go into as much detail as I would have liked.
Borneman sets the stage for the war by discussing the relations between Great Britain and the United States in the first decade of the 1800s, including one of the main reasons for the United States to go to war: the impressments of American sailors into British naval service on the high seas. The United States was still considered an extremely minor power and was bullied by pretty much everybody. While the French didn't impress sailors, they did do other things, and some hawks in the American government actually advocated going to war with both Britain and France! One other reason for the war, not as popularly known, was that many westerners wanted to steal Canada out from under Great Britain while they were distracted by Napoleon on the continent. They didn't see any reason why Canada shouldn't be part of the United States, by force if necessary.
Thus, the war drums were beaten, and war was declared. Borneman does a great job showing us all of the machinations that went on behind the scenes to get the declaration of war passed in Congress, along with a couple of incidents that almost got the war started before it really did. While this information is obviously well-known to history buffs who have studied the era, it was information that I hadn't known before and I liked how Borneman laid it all out for us. He shows how Madison went along with all of this, though he was almost hoping that Congress would bail him out of the course he had set for the country.
Once the fighting starts, Borneman also explains all the battles that happened during the war, sometimes in very vivid detail. He tells us about the horribly executed three-pronged invasion of Canada that resulted in the loss of Detroit to the British, as well as the first major US victories on the high seas before the British finally started taking this upstart navy seriously. The level of detail is amazing sometimes, though for some reason I felt a bit removed from all of the action. I'm not sure if it's because he is sometimes unable to give reasons for what happened or if it's his style, but while the prose is detailed, I felt like something was missing. Perhaps it's because the book comes in two modes: detailed battle information and the reasons behind some of the events in the war, but these two modes never really mingle. Instead, we get some battle detail, then we get some "big picture" information, and then we go back to the battles, etc.
I do have to give Borneman credit, however, for making a (for lack of a better word) "boring" war very interesting to read about. He has obviously done his research and he gives descriptions of tactics in each battle (including wonderfully rendered maps!). These descriptions make you feel like you are right there on the battlefield, hearing the explosions and feeling musket balls whistle past your ear. Sometimes his descriptions make it seem impossible that so few (relatively speaking, of course) men actually died in these battles. He describes men being mown down by rows of musket fire and then we hear casualties of 81 killed and 500 wounded or the like. Of note is his account of the Battle of New Orleans, a battle that was fought after the armistice had been signed but before news had reached the participants, and could have resulted in a resumption of hostilities if the British had won. This battle is even more lovingly described than the rest of them and he really shows Andrew Jackson's leadership and tactical expertise in this chapter.
The War of 1812 was a war that some in the United States wanted for their own purposes, but one that almost to a man it was desperate to get out of as Napoleon surrenders and the British are able to concentrate on this annoying gnat of a country. Nothing was resolved officially, but it turns out to be the war that would cement the feeling of "America" on an infant country that was just trying to find its feet in the world. Borneman does a great job showing how this occurred, with Jackson's resounding victory of a battle-hardened British army being the final piece of the puzzle. While there may be more comprehensive books on the War of 1812 out there, 1812: The War that Forged a Nation is a wonderful starting point.
David Roy
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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mr. Madison's War, July 14, 2005
The War of 1812 is often passed over very quickly in American history class because it is supposedly neither very interesting nor important. Walter Borneman seems to have taken exception to this idea and has set about to show his readers just how interesting and important this war was. His writing style and his ability to guide the reader along through a maze of events and people in a clearly understandable way help him to accomplish his first goal. I think however, that he may have overreached on the importance of the war, at least when it comes to national unity.
Borneman writes much like a novelist and his prose keeps the story of this conflict going in a quick paced and highly engaging manner. He is in fact, a little too conversational at times and although I did find this to be a little distracting it wasn't a big problem at all. The most amazing aspect of Mr. Borneman's writing style is that he manages to tie all of the action into the bigger picture with what appears to be very little effort. This is no small feat when one considers that this was a war that was pretty much divided into at least five separate little wars that were connected only tenuously to each other. Add to that the several Indian Nations involved, most of which sided with the British but not all, and one tribe that divided up and fought each other and one has the makings of a convoluted mess. Borneman somehow manages to tie it all together without getting his readers completely lost and on top of that he keeps it interesting. Not only interesting I might add, but fascinating.
Borneman's main contention is that the War of 1812 made the United States into a confident and united nation. He proves his point about American confidence fairly well and also shows that this war gained a good deal of respect for the U.S. among the powers of the world. The Monroe Doctrine would surely not have been possible before 1812 for no European nation would have paid it any attention at all.
On the other hand Mr. Borneman falls short in his argument about the new unity of the United States as a result of the war. One of the chief handicaps that hampered American plans during the war was that the states didn't work well with the Federal Government or with each other for that matter. State militia units were constantly refusing to cross out of their states or into Canada, and Vermont and New York farmers were selling tons of supplies to the British. While the outcome of the war did no doubt strengthen American unity somewhat, there was still a long way to go and no matter Mr. Borneman's claims, the United States remained a plural term for many of it's citizens for many years to come.
While the author's main thesis is not all that well supported by this book this is still an excellent short history of the War of 1812. It is highly readable, easy to follow and solidly researched. There is little or no new scholarship to be found here but for anyone who has a limited knowledge of this era of American history I would highly recommend this book. I would also think that even a student of this time period might find out a few new things within these pages for Mr. Borneman has brought a fairly complicated subject to life and has given it a focus.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cogent, readable and enlightening, December 8, 2004
1812 is a riveting account of a dangerous time in our country's history. For a nation only 20 years of age, one whose economic health was so dependent on overseas commerce, to emback so impetuously in a war with the world's greatest maritime power--a power who nearly was succesful in stillbirthing the nations's inception--seems foolhardy at best. The justifiable goals of war: impressmant of U.S. citizens for duty on Her Majesty's ships, the equally unreasonable Orders in Council, that forced the world's seagoing traders to pay protection to the crown, was laudable. But the American rallying cry for Canadian lands today smacks of hypocrisy, given our colonial past, and Jefferson's embargos caused more financial pain --self-inflicted-- than any policy Great Britain had imposed.
As with the Revolution, this war put our national life fully on the line. In 1812, grievances that might have been successfully addressed with patience and diplomacy in the end, through war, built a national character--a sense of collective state's self-- that indeed forged a union that made the coming civil dispute a two-party war and not chaos between 18? states.
I knew none of this, appreciated none of the fragility of our fledgling union before reading this book. Borneman writes compellingly, conversationally, and has a tremendous capacity for building a broader context for events and personalities that ultimately makes sense for what might otherwise be a cocophany of battles, places and people. I highly recommend 1812 The War That Forged a Nation for anyone wanting to add depth to their picture of our nation's formative years. The book belongs on the same shelf as McCullough's John Adams, Ambrose's Lewis and Clark, and Franklin's biography.
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