Conflict for a Continent.

• Author: Beechey, David
• Position: 'The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent' - Book review

The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent by J. C. A. Stagg, Cambridge University Press: New York, 2012, ISBN 978-0-521-72686-3, 216 pp. (Hardcover edition), $85.00 (Hardcover), $22.51 (paper), $9.99 (Kindle).

Professor Stagg writes in the very first page of text "it remains to be seen whether the British will decide to remember or to forget yet again the events of 1812 -1814." This is an implication that the British are somehow embarrassed by the War of 1812. I can assure Professor Stagg that hardly anyone in the UK has heard of it. When Johnny Horton's hit single of the 1960's came out in the UK the word "British" was changed to "Rebels" because there was apparent concern that offence would be caused. A very popular British singer called Lonnie Donegan made a cover version which started with an amusing, short, monologue about the battle and, partly because of the self deprecatory humour for which we are famous, it was a huge hit. If you are interested you can hear/see it on YouTube. After being asked to review this book a few weeks ago I have been asking just about everyone that I have met in the UK what they knew about the War of 1812. Most people immediately assumed that I was referring to Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Only one person out of well over a hundred I asked had heard of it, and that was only because of the song!

There are the makings of a great book here, and, had it lived up to the expectations in the Introduction it might have been but it is far too short to achieve that. The introduction is ambitious in its description of what is to follow but the narrative fails to live up to it.

Stagg is an experienced and respected historian so I can only conclude that the publisher decided that if this was to be a "popular" book then it was necessary to edit with a heavy hand. An easy way to partly achieve that would be to remove descriptions of behaviour by Americans that might be deemed to be excessive whereas any excesses by the British and Canadians are recorded in some detail.

Stagg is an acknowledged expert on the papers of James Madison and has published seventeen volumes. As so often happens in these cases, he has, in my opinion, become too closely identified with his subject. President Madison's errors of judgement leap off the pages but Professor Stagg always finds excuses for him; except that towards the end of the War, in 1814, he admits that the "administration finally discarded ... its justification for the war" without...