noswadyllib's review
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Excellent book, written well and agree that the war of 1812 was in essence a civil war. I will definitely read more books written by Mr Taylor.
doruga's review against another edition
5.0
Alan Taylor proves once again that he is an exceptional historian. The amount of research and care it must have taken to write this book is telling. Also, Taylor's ability to show all sides of a controversial historical argument using quotes, analysis, and his own opinions is amazing. You can certainly tell which side Taylor goes with - the book is most certainly defending a thesis after all - but Taylor makes sure you know every possible aspect of the problem before giving his own opinion on the matter, so then the reader can deduce their own impressions of the matter. Excellent as always. Wish there were more popular mainstream historian writers like this.
abeanbg's review against another edition
4.0
Skimmed and skiped a bit in the latter half, but this was still a good read.
quintusmarcus's review
4.0
Either I was out the day it was covered in class, or I just plain forgot that the War of 1812 was about a heck of a lot more than the impressment of American sailors and the sack of our capitol. Turns out the war was really a civil war of sorts, pitting Americans versus loyalist Americans who had fled to Canada. Throw in the British and their native American allies and the result was a pretty complex and nasty conflict.Who knew? The author lays out in great detail the ethnic and political composition of Canada, and the very close relations Canadians had with their American friends, families, and political sympathizers across the border. The war itself was a colossal series of failures and blunders on the American side--it is nothing short of a miracle that our capitol is not in London. I had no idea how perilously close to collapse the nation came at the end of the war, and how in the end the US was saved only by the renewed threat of war on the continent. The British desire to extricate themselves from the fight in Canada, which was for them merely a side show, was our saving grace. Excellent book, fully supported by scholarly apparatus, but highly readable and not overly academic.
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