1812: War with America (review)

American historians have formulated different theories about the causes of the War of 1812 and its effects on the United States. The conflict has been regarded as a defense of national rights, a battle to protect American mariners, and an attempt to conquer Canada. Evaluations of the struggle's results have ranged from a spectacular American victory to a stalemate that united the republic and proved the need for federally sponsored internal improvements and a national bank. The more optimistic writers have cast the War of 1812 as a Second War for Independence. From the British perspective, the War of 1812 has been viewed as a costly and unprovoked distraction fought while the British Empire labored to defeat French tyranny. Given this attitude toward the second Anglo–American war, it is not surprising that few histories of the confrontation were ever written from the British angle. Jon Latimer, author of Alamein (Cambridge, MA, 2004), Deception in War (New York, 2001), and Buccaneers of the Caribbean: How Piracy Forged an Empire (Cambridge, MA, 2009) greatly adds to our understanding of the English viewpoint with his detailed narrative 1812: War with America.

Latimer argues that the only significant outcome of the War of 1812 was Canada's continued existence. Canada, a group of British colonies at the outbreak of hostilities, eventually achieved dominion status and later full independence. As Latimer points out, had the U.S. invasion succeeded, the British provinces would have become additional states rather than a separate country. Latimer stresses that America's premier war aim was Canada's conquest, and based on its failure to achieve this goal, he judges the War of 1812 an American defeat.

Latimer also attempts to debunk the long-standing American argument that abrasive British policies caused the war. He defends Britain's disruption of neutral trade with France as part of England's strategy to win a twenty-two-year struggle, and he insists that the British government operated under clearly defined rules regarding contraband and that most seizures of American cargos were justifiable under international law. Latimer also claims that most impressments of sailors serving on American ships were legal because the removals usually involved native-born Britons who owed lifetime allegiance to their monarch. While many mariners claimed American nativity by presenting certificates verifying their place of birth (commonly referred to as "protections"), the market for buying fraudulent protections was so great that British authorities could not accept these documents as legitimate. Of the native-born Americans forced into British service, Latimer notes that many accepted recruitment bounties from the Royal Navy, thus obliging them to serve out their enlistment.

Latimer cites bitterness and humiliation as the source of Americans' belief in the righteousness and success of their cause. According to Latimer, the United States's failure to conquer its weaker neighbor resulted in many American political leaders searching for a positive interpretation of events. America's early naval victories and the successes at Plattsburgh, Baltimore, and New Orleans helped ease the pain of such disgraces as the burning of Washington, D.C. From this mindset, Americans began to view the War of 1812 as a successful battle for sovereign rights. This approach provided the United States with a psychological victory. That attitude, combined with the neutralization of most Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River, made the United States a more confident and assertive nation. The British, on the other hand, were glad to see a useless struggle terminate with their possessions still intact. The successful defense of Canada left Britons with a sense they had achieved a stalemate when a greater disaster could have easily befallen them.

Latimer makes several good points to support Britain's position concerning the causes and results of the conflict; however, his reasoning does have a few weaknesses. The conquest of Canada did present a tempting prize to many Americans, especially those who came to be known as "War Hawks," but the aspirations of one faction do not...