Book description
As military campaigns go, the War of 1812 was a disaster. By the time
it ended in 1815, Washington, D. C., had been burned to the ground,
the national debt had nearly tripled, and territorial gains were
negligible. Yet the war gained so much popular support that it ushered
in what is known as the "era of good feelings," a period of
relative partisan harmony and strengthened national identity.
Historian Nicole Eustace's cultural history of the war tells the story
of how an expensive, unproductive campaign won over a young
nation-largely by appealing to the heart.
1812 looks at the way each major event of the war became an
opportunity to capture the American imagination: from the first
attempt at invading Canada, intended as the grand opening of the war;
to the battle of Lake Erie, where Oliver Perry hoisted the flag
famously inscribed with "Don't Give Up the Ship"; to the
burning of the Capitol by the British. Presidential speeches and
political cartoons, tavern songs and treatises appealed to the
emotions, painting war as an adventure that could expand the land and
improve opportunities for American families. The general population,
mostly shielded from the worst elements of the war, could imagine
themselves participants in a great national movement without much
sacrifice. Bolstered with compelling images of heroic fighting men and
the loyal women who bore children for the nation, war supporters
played on romantic notions of familial love to espouse population
expansion and territorial aggression while maintaining limitations on
citizenship. 1812 demonstrates the significance of this
conflict in American history: the war that inspired "The
Star-Spangled Banner" laid the groundwork for a patriotism that
still reverberates today.
"This is far and away the most important book written on the
War of 1812 in several decades."-David Waldstreicher, Temple University
Nicole Eustace is Associate Professor of History at New York
University and author of Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the
Coming of the American Revolution.
