1812: The War that Forged a Nation – by Walter R. Borneman
An impulse buy on the Kindle (it was marked down) that I had doubts if I would ever get around to actually reading it. I did and am now glad. This book is a perfect, somewhat concise, primer for those studying history who want to understand the why’s and how’s of the second American conflict in the nation’s history.
Author Walter R. Borneman does mention throughout this work that, if anything, this war was important for the young United States to establish itself as a “proper” country that deserves to be respected as much as the other big boys half-way across the globe. Although this fact is eluded to in the subtitle of the book, this book doesn’t dwell too much on that aspect, and instead, is mainly a detailed account of the conflict.
Books that go into too much detail about battles in a war, can be a tad tedious for my tastes. Reading the intricacies of what goes on during these conflicts isn’t particularly interesting to me. It’s a bit like reading a book that details a play-by-play account of a basketball game (see John Grisham’s “Sooley”). It simply isn’t as exciting as seeing such events in a documentary or a well-done film. Yes, there are times when this book does get a bit bogged down in the weeds during such clashes (most are naval), but the author manages to navigate through these events much better than many other authors.
He spends an adequate time leading up to the conflict; setting up the stage as to why this war actually started. He begins several years before the event, but it’s all relevant and highly interesting. We read, for example, that the war was not entirely the result of the young nation being bullied. Although it’s true that the impressment of American sailors by the British Navy was a main reason, we also read that the new nation was quite greedy when it came to expansion. There were many who were eager to push the boundaries of the country up into Canada (then British owned). There was a lot of squabbling with the Native Americans (he has no problem referring to them as “Indians”), and in many cases, it seemed as though both sides of the conflict were using them as pawns on a chessboard.
Although not the author’s fault, sometimes it could be challenging remembering whose side the leaders of this conflict were on. English and American names are identical, and most of the names here are quite novel to everyone except the astute student. And there are a LOT of names. Borneman does an excellent job keeping the reader educated with the most notable figures; in some instances giving us a nice background of the individuals. This does aid in keeping the players straight without a scorecard. Still, reading a name such as “John Smith” can be challenging in remembering whether the individual was British or American.
It's also nice that this book isn’t aimed to be too serious nor scholarly. There were many of times when the author makes a wry comment within the pages that brings a bit of human-ish quality to his accounts. I remember one instance when he makes a humorous observation about growing up in the 1950s when the song “The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton was popular. It’s nice to smile occasionally when reading about such deadly seriousness.
Anyway, to reiterate, this is a great place to start if you want to learn more about the war. It also serves as a good resource if one learned about the conflict years ago and now wants to revisit the key events.
