Book Review: 1812: The War That Forged a Nation
I read 1812: The War That Forged a Nation a while ago and never got around to posting a review.
I got interested in this book when I viewed the History Channel documentary "First Invasion" on the War of 1812 that I presume was based on this book since they had similar theses. I really enjoyed that program and it spurred my interest in making a trip to Fort McHenry, which I did back in August. (Definitely worth the trip, by the way.)
While I found the documentary interesting, I wasn't as impressed by the book. I didn't think it defended it's main thesis all that well. It argued that the War of 1812 was the war that made Americans stop thinking of themselves as citizens of their state and start thinking of themselves as Americans. Given that it's the Civil War that's traditionally given credit for that destruction of state loyalties, this point should have been made more convincingly. As a counter-example to the book's argument, Robert E Lee fought for the Confederacy because he thought of himself as a Virginian, even though he served in the United States Army prior to the Civil War and opposed slavery. The thesis of the book is largely dealt with only in the early chapters and then in the conclusion, and not at all convincingly.
Furthermore, I found the descriptions of some of the battles too detailed. I really didn't find it interesting to know how ships tacked during the naval battles. That was just too much detail. The book was about 300 pages and might have been better served being shorter.
One thing the author did cover well was the divisiveness and anger that the war engendered among the American people and the politicians of the day. It almost makes today's loony left look calm and reasoned. Let's hope we come together as well as our forefathers did almost 200 years ago following the divisive war of their time.
I've passed this book on to Ryan, so it will be interesting to see his review of it when he gets a chance to read it.