In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

SHORTER BOOK REVIEWS Carl E. Swanson. Predators and Prizes: American Privateering and Imperial Warfare, 1739-1748. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991. xvi + 300 pp. Illus. William J. Welsh and David C. Skaggs, eds. War on the Great Lakes: Essays Commemorating the 17th Anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1991. 154 pp. The history of maritime endeavours in North American waters has numerous uncompleted chapters, and among these are the roles of colonial privateering in the eighteenth century and the naval War of 1812. These two fine books go a very long way towards completing the chapters, and they are significant not only in the material that each of them covers so widely and sympathetically, but in the sorts of questions that they ask. It can be fairly said that heretofore very little systematic work has been done on the history of privateering in American waters, though numerous articles and several competent theses have been completed on aspects of the subject. Even so, much ground awaited a skilled practitioner of the historian's craft. For that reason alone, Carl Swanson's book is to be welcomed, for it will form a model for others to follow for other periods of this same century. Swanson's theme is that privateering was an integral part of warfare, and that colonial enterprise in waging war was largely seaborne. Without a centralized body of documentation to draw on, he has combed numerous colonial sources, and to good effect, for the result is a North American explanation of the significance of privateering. In effect, he brings British maritime history to the western Atlantic fringe, right into the great ports of colonial America. The British connection was good for colonial commerce, and British maritime regulation, particularly the Acts of Navigation and Trade, and the jurisdictional apparatus that encouraged privateering, was beneficial to the colonies. Swanson, with considerable care and scrupulous 492 Shorter Book Reviews attention to details salvaged from numerous archives, explains how privateering contributed to the British war effort from Newfoundland to the Spanish Main, and struck savagely at the sea prowess of France and Spain. The well-respected colonial American merchants thus played a vital role in supporting British seapower. Whether they were dupes of British policy is not asked, and it is intriguing to think that American privateers were subsequentlyto turn their attentions to preying on imperial commerce during the RevolutionaryWar and against British and Canadian shipping during the War of 1812. Privateering was a testy nursery of seamen; Swanson's thorough, finely-crafted work, which began as a doctoral thesis at the University of Western Ontario, is a pathfinding study that invites more general treatment over a wider canvas of time and space. The bibliography and notes will aid the curious in seeking out sources and in testing the waters of a very large subject. One last thing should be said: Swanson has used quantitative analysis to good effect. The findings never dominate his narrative but are, as they should be, ancillary and supportive of his sound arguments. The series of brief essays edited by Welsh and Skaggs on the War of 1812 is a work of a different order. The strength of this volume lies in its bibliographiesand guide to sources, both American and Canadian, and in the extensive notes that accompany each chapter. The chapters themselves review the historiography of the War and its campaigns. They also update the usual references in--if one may use the expression--this heavily-mined field. I was struck by Christopher McKee's astute observations that American historians have not rivalled their Canadian counterparts in writing on this conflictand that the best books on the Lakes' frontier campaigns have yet to be written, perhaps by historians of this generation. This book could be used as a text for a senior undergraduate seminar on the War of 1812, because it is an introduction to the subject, points out the perils of crossborder research, identifiesthe historical biases of 1812struggles and provides a rich bibliographical and historiographical apparatus. The editors and publisher had the good sense to bring a disparate collection into a workable, perceptive whole. As with Swanson's...

pdf

Share