The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812 by C. S. Forester (review)

248 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW their contributions to Canadian life. Dr. ,Reaman's chief interest is in the Mennonites and Dunkards of Pennsylvania, but he includes in his "ethnic group" German immigrants intoUpperCanada fromthe various American statesof everyProtestant sect,disbanded Hessiansoldiers, the Amishwho arrived laterdirectly fromEurope, English Quakers, andFrench Huguenots. Allthese people wereassociated in onewayoranother, andallsought the richlimestone soils onwhich theblack walnut grew. Aftera briefaccount of thesects in Europeandthe colonies, the author devotes a lengthy chapter (85pages) totheirmigration to andsettlement in Upper Canada.This is dividedinto four chronological sections, with each of these subdivided territorially, usually by county. Withinthisframework theauthor deals withhundreds of individual settlers, giving whatever information about eachthathehasbeenableto glean. Theorganization results in a considerable amout of duplication andconfusion. An example of thisisin thesouthwestern partofOntario, where Essex County andKentCounty are treated separately fromthe"DetroitArea,"instead of beingincluded in it, withresulting overlapping andmisplacement of material in thethreedivisions. In addition, localhistorians generally will findmanyerrors of fact,aswell asomissions of important detail,in thetreatment of thesubject in theirareas ofspecialization. The booksuffers fundamentally fromthe natureof the sources used.Dr. Reaman states that he wasforcedto rely principally on secondary sources, except for certaindocuments andfamilyhistories in privatepossession. It is unfortunate thathe didnotfindandmakeuseof thepetitions andotherland records intheDominion Archives, andthesurveyors' records intheDepartment of Landsand•Forests atToronto. No attempt ismadeto discriminate between scholarly andamateur publications; andall areextensively quoted ratherthan digested. As a resultwe receive the strange information, to cite onlytwo examples, thatColonel Talbotwasgranted some 802,880acres of landforhis services (p. 116), and that "the Americancommander" of Detroitin 1780 wasaGeneral Coorobs (p. 78). Chapters IV and V, whichare concerned with the contributions of the Pennsylvania Germans toCanadian agriculture andcultural life,, contain much interestingbut sometimes debatablematerial.The author'sconclusions are givenin a finalchapter. From C. HA•am WayneState University TheAgeof Fighting Sail:TheStory of theNavalWarof 1812.By C. S. FOR•.ST•.R. Mainstreamof AmericaSeries,L•.w•s GAiNs. a--r,Editor. Garden City:Doubleday & Company, Inc.[Toronto: Doubleday Publishers]. 1956. Pp.284.$5.75. IT hassometimes beensaidthatthe War of 1812is to Canadians, a war on land; toAmericans, awaratsea; and toEnglishmen, a completely forgotten episode of history. Asin allsuch generalizations thereisbothtruthanderror inthisone.Certainly, however, C. S.Forester's contribution to The Mainstream ofAmerica Series isthoroughly inkeeping withAmerican tradition. TheAge o•Fighting Sailisa venture intotherealm offactbyanauthor better known REVIEWS OF BOOKS 249 asa writerof fiction. Hisbook isa vivid,exciting blendof history andbiography . Here thereader willfind theexploits ofHull,Decatur, Bainbridge, Rodgers, Lawrence, Porter, andPerry, toldin thefashion thatForester's readers have come toexpect, even tothebias thatequates Napoleon with Hitler. The Americanvictoriesin the severalduelsbetweenBritish and American sea-going frigates provide theauthor withthemen anddeeds for arollicking good story; theBritish naval blockade ismuch less rewarding from a literary, even if it was more effective froma historical, standpoint. The Canadian reader, looking foranew approach tother61e ofsea power onthe Great Lakes, willlook invain:there areiustthetwofamiliar faces ofPerry and Macdonough and only two clear-cut engagements torelate. Asfarasthe privateers areconcerned theRossie is there, but narya wordabout the Liverpool Packet. None oftheNova Scotians even makes theIndex. Like the othervolumes of thisseries, thisbooklacksthe formalparaphernaliaof learning withwhich scholars usually buttress theirfindings, andto whichit is popularly supposed the average reader objects. Thismaybe forgiven; whatcannot bepardoned istheabsence ofsuitable maps andcharts otherthanthetwoinadequate endmaps. If thereader isinterested inthelarger picture oftheWarof 1812andthe relation ofsea power tothehistory oftheage, hewillgodirectly toMahan, orperhaps even toRoosevelt, rather than dally withForester; butif hewants sheer enioyment, hecandonobetter thanrenew acquaintance withhisold friend Captain Hornblower speaking withaYankee accent andsailing Joshua Humphreys' frigates. Gv.o•acv.F. G. TheRoyal MilitaryCollege ofCanada Lilteand Labourin Newltoundland. By C. R. FAY.qloronto: University of Toronto Press. 1956.Pp.viii,254,map.$5.00. TI-IIS studyby Professor C. R. Fay, formerly of Toronto and Cambridge, is basedon lectures delivered at MemorialUniversity, St. John's. It is the fruit oftwosummer visits to Newfoundland, including Labrador, andresearch ona widevariety ofsource material onbothsides oftheAtlantic. Ovek three-fourths ofthebookiseconomic history, mainly onthethemeofthehistoric commercial relations betweenthe westof Englandand Newfoundland; the remainder is largelydescriptive of thenewindustries, particularly thepulpandpaperand mining industries, andthecommunities developed around them. The greatmeritof the bookis not that it radicallyaltersthe accepted story of Newfoundland development butthatit enriches thestory especially on the commercial side,therebyproviding a corrective to the egocentric tendency whichhassometimes characterized the writingof Newfoundland's history, aswell asthatof othercolonies. Professor Fay hasstruck goldin...