Today, we know
the war
fought
between the United States and Britain from 1812 to 1815 as
the War of
1812, but
that moniker didn’t come into use until after the Mexican
War nearly
four
decades later. Americans wanted to forget the disastrous
land battles
and
military blunders that characterized much of the conflict.
The war was
also rife
with political strife, pitting Federalists against
Republicans. About
the only
thing the two parties agreed on “was how gloriously the
tiny American
navy had
triumphed.” (xi) And that, of course, was precisely what
the British
wished to
forget – their humiliating defeats inflicted by the same
rebellious
nation that
had defeated them thirty years before.
The author’s intent in this
examination of the War of 1812 is to focus “on humanity
hidden in
ordinary
times; it lays bare what is so often successfully hidden.”
Budiansky
looks at
both the glorious aspects of the conflict, and the not so
glorious
ones, by
concentrating on the opposing navies. He interweaves
memoirs, personal
and
public letters, news reports, eyewitness accounts, and
contemporary
views.
Aside from a story of the American navy’s early days, Perilous
Fight is also about William Jones, the secretary of
the
navy for two critical years of the war. Another purpose of
the book is
to show
the most enduring significance of this conflict, of which
Augustus J.
Foster, a
British diplomat, said: “The Americans . . . have brought
us to speak
of them
with respect.”(xv)
Unlike many books about the
War of 1812, this one opens with the United States Navy
and its
interactions
with the Barbary pirates, the early days of the American
government,
and why
the navy lacked the support that we today take for
granted. From there,
Budiansky explores how the British viewed her former
colony and the
dangers
American tars faced from Royal Navy ships in need of
additional
crewmen.
Another key component concerns the greater threat from the
British
perspective
– the Continental war with Napoleon. Subsequent chapters
focus on the
strengths
and differences between the warships of both sides, key
naval people
and
politicians, the issues and confrontations that brought
both countries
into
battle, the war itself from both perspectives, battles
between
warships, the
British blockade of the American coasts and the effect
that blockade
had on the
economy, how the face of war changed as the conflict
progressed,
prisoners of
war, privateers, the burning of Washington and the attack
on Fort
McHenry,
peace, and the consequences of the war.
To enhance the narrative and
enrich the reading experience, the book contains maps,
diagrams, and
two
sections of illustrations, one in color, the other in
black and white.
Chapter
notes, a bibliography of primary and secondary resources,
and a
detailed index appear
at the end of the volume.
Perilous Fight
is an engrossing account of the War of 1812 from the
perspective of the
navies
and people involved. The inclusion of snippets from
personal writings
and other
private correspondence breathe life into the participants
and make them
more
than simply names upon a page. Budiansky adeptly meets his
goals and
does so
with a narrative that reads more like a novel than a
history. Even
those
unfamiliar with naval histories and maritime ways will
easily
comprehend what
is written here. Readers come away with a better
understanding of what
led to
the war and the conflict itself, as well as an
appreciation that some
of the
issues currently facing our nation seem eerily reminiscent
of this
earlier
period in our history.
Review
Copyrighted ©2012 Cindy Vallar
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