Book Review: 'The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition'

© 2012 University of Illinois Press

In February of 2012, the University of Illinois Press published Donald R. Hickey's The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition, an expanded and updated version of a 1992 work about the United States' second and last war with Great Britain. Based on Hickey's 15 years of studying and writing about specific topics related to this long-neglected conflict in American history, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition is considered by many historians and literary critics to be the definitive account of "the Second War of Independence," as the three-year clash of arms was dubbed by many of its contemporary supporters.

Hickey, who teaches history at Wayne State College in Nebraska, goes beyond the usual "military history" approach of other authors who focus almost exclusively on the battles on land and sea. In The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, the respected author of such books as Don't Give Up the Ship! Myths of the War of 1812 and Glorious Victory: Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans delves into the deep background issues that led to the war, including anglophobia in the United States, Britain's determination to prevail in its war against Napoleonic France, trade and diplomatic disputes between Washington and London - including one of the war's best-remembered causes: the impressment of American sailors into the Royal Navy on the high seas - and the role of American domestic politics in sparking the War of 1812 in the first place.

This comprehensive and authoritative history of the War of 1812, thoroughly revised for the 200th anniversary of the historic conflict, is a myth-shattering study that will inform and entertain students, historians, and general readers alike. Donald R. Hickey explores the military, diplomatic, and domestic history of our second war with Great Britain, bringing the study up to date with recent scholarship on all aspects of the war, from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.

The newly expanded The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition includes additional information on the British forces, American Indians, and military operations such as the importance of logistics and the use and capabilities of weaponry. Hickey explains how the war promoted American nationalism and manifest destiny, stimulated peacetime defense spending, and enhanced America's reputation abroad. He also shows that the war sparked bloody conflicts between pro-war Republican and anti-war Federalist neighbors, dealt a crippling blow to American Indians, and solidified the United States's antipathy toward the British. - Publisher's back cover blurb. 

The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition is divided into 11 brief chapters that cover the war from its roots in the accession to power of the Republican Party (the original name of today's Democratic Party) and the last years of the once-dominant Federalists all the way to the 1814 Treaty of Ghent that ended the conflict. (The Battle of New Orleans, the American victory that took place on Jan. 8, 1815, is covered in the chapter titled The British Counteroffensive.) 

The chapters are:

• The Road to War (1801-1812)
• The Declaration of War
• The Baltimore Riots
• The Campaign of 1812
• Raising Men and Money
• The Campaign of 1813
• The Last Embargo
• The British Counteroffensive
• The Crisis of 1814
• The Hartford Convention
• The Treaty of Ghent

The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition also has a list of illustrations, two prefaces (including the one for the 1992 edition), an introduction, and an unnumbered chapter titled "Conclusion."

My Take

The War of 1812, like the 1950-1953 Korean War, is an obscure and often misunderstood event in American history. Unlike the American Revolution, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, or the more recent World Wars and Vietnam, the so-called Second American Revolution has not inspired many historians, writers, or filmmakers to create books, movies, or documentaries about it. 

Sure, most Americans are dimly aware that the War of 1812 saw the burning of Washington, DC by British troops in the summer campaign of 1814, the very same one that included the successful defense of Baltimore; Francis Scott Key's poem The Star Spangled Banner, an immortalization of the bombardment of Ft. McHenry by the British fleet, was wedded to an English drinking song (To Anacreon in Heaven) and became the U.S. national anthem in 1931.  And in the 1950s, Johnny Horton had a hit song with his Battle of New Orleans, a ballad that commemorated the famous "unnecessary battle" of 1815.

 The War of 1812 is perhaps "forgotten" because it wasn't exactly America's finest hour in any sense. It was a failure in diplomacy; the issues between Britain and the U.S. could have been resolved via negotiations had they not been overshadowed by the rivalry between the Republican and Federalist parties. Militarily, American forces that relied primarily on militia rather than a professional U.S. Army often failed to achieve their objectives. An American invasion of what is today modern Canada was an abysmal failure and Washington, DC was invaded and partly set afire and looted by British troops commanded by Admiral George Cockburn (pronounced CO-BURN, as Hickey points out). during the Chesapeake campaign, the same one that ended with the British failure to capture Baltimore and nearby Ft. McHenry. 

The war, Hickey points out, ended in a military stalemate. Both sides failed in their invasions; Canada remained in British hands – thanks in no small part to its population's steadfast loyalty to the Crown – while Britain's efforts to cause trouble on the western frontier by aiding various Native American tribes ended in tragedy for the Indians. Never popular in either side of the Atlantic, the War of 1812 ended in what diplomats call status quo ante bellum, although the U.S. received key concessions from London, including an end to impressment of American sailors into the British service. (For the British, this was a rather painless concession, since the war with the French was winding down and London saw the conflict with America as an irritating sideshow rather than an existential threat to the British Empire.) 

Hickey's The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition is a good "introduction to the topic" book. Its style is more along the lines of Bruce Catton's American Heritage History of the Civil War, aimed less toward the reader who wants to get the personal experience of the War of 1812 and more for students, other historians, and general readers who want the essential facts but not a blow-by-blow description of every battle on land as well as on the high seas. 

It's not a bad book, mind you. Hickey is a well-regarded expert on the War of 1812, and the 1992 edition of The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict won a Best Book Award from the American Military Institute 27 years ago.  I learned more about this last war between America and Great Britain from this 480-page book than I did from my U.S. history courses in high school and college. The writing is crisp and unpretentious, and it is clear that the author clearly did a lot of research before he started writing it.