• Paperback
• 464
• For Honour's Sake the War of 1812 and the Brokering of An Uneasy Peace
• Mark Zuehlke
• English
• 16 September 2018
• 9780676977066

Mark Zuehlke ↠ 4 Read

For Honour's Sake the War of 1812 and the Brokering of An Uneasy Peace Read ä 104 Mark Zuehlke ↠ 4 Read In the tradition of Margaret MacMillan’s Paris 1919 comes a new consideration of Canada’s most famous war and the Treaty of Ghent that unsatisfactorily concluded it from one of this country’s premier military historians In the Canadian imagination the War of 1812 looms large It was a war in which British and Indian troops prevailed in almost all of the battles in which the Americans were unable to hold any of the land they fought for in which a young woman named Laura Secord raced over the Niagara pe Wow History as it ought to be writtenMark Zuelke writes a fast moving detailed blow by blow account of the War of 1812 and the subseuent negotiated peace treaty at Ghent swiftly describing personalities relationships and strategies and misteps on both sides The account of the battles for Lake Erie and Lake Ontario kept me on the edge of my seat as did the failed campaign on Montreal and the battle for the Niagara Peninsula The story of Laura Secord alas is not uite verifiable Secord s warning on Tanglefoot s album Captured Alive IMPORT and other of their albums is a personal favoriteOddly enough the War was only an echo of the Napoleonic Wars and the Americans are shown to have greater reason to grieve against the French yet they decided to side against and attack the BritishMy only complaint is that the constant change of viewpoints and the sheer number of people referenced in the space of a few paragraphs made the narrative confusing and might be boring for the younger reader but the book had no problem holding my attentionThere are also incredible parallels for our own time the Raisin River massacre where the British left a group of natives to guard American prisoners the fascinating account of how the Americans due to the advocacy of men like Henry Clay pushed the country into war that they were not prepared to fight and their mistaken notion that the Canadians would welcome their advance There is also the lesson of a military advantage not used is no advantage at all when held by overly cautious officers such as the British Prevost and the American General Henry Granny Dearborn A similar example is related when American ships which have superior canon to the British are held back by a sandbar on Lake Erie And even though the focus of the book is on the military campaign it also records the political pressures of external concerns such as taxes and elections on the outcome of negotiationsThe coverage of the peace negotiations at Ghent was a treat I was astounded and impressed to discover that one of the primary British demands in was the formation and recognition of an Indian buffer nation in Ohio and Michigan not only to contain American expansion and protect Upper Canada but also in respect of native support and native claims The primary British negotiator Ghoulburn had strong feelings on that point only to be undermined by lack of interest or obligation of its importance by Wellington who wanted the matter wrapped up as uickly as possible North America was just a side show and wrapping up the Concert of Europe after Napoleon was the main event Indeed Wellington s historical lustre drops by the revelation of his sending a letter to the American lead negotiator Albert Gallatin the content of which would be considered no less than treasonCanadian children learn a short version about the War in middle school though I remember learning than my children were exposed to American children seem to know nothing at all This book is too old for them I d certainly recommend it to history teachers upper year college students history buffs or those with an interest in military strategy Be warned though this is not a skimmable book each paragraph is loaded with six or eight people and rapidly changing points of view so it can be hard to follow but Zuehlke ties it all togetherFascinating and Recommended

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For Honour's Sake the War of 1812 and the Brokering of An Uneasy Peace Read ä 104 Mark Zuehlke ↠ 4 Read Ninsula to warn of American plans for attack though how she knew has never been discovered and in which Canadian troops burned down the White House Competing American claims insist to this day that in fact it was they who were triumphantBut where does the truth lie Somewhere in the middle as is revealed in this major new reconsideration from one of Canada’s master historians Drawing on never before seen archival material Zuehlke paints a vibrant picture of the war’s major battles vividly re creating li I had read numerous books on WW2 by Mark and was to be blunt surprised that he would leave what I thought was his comfort zone and take on the war of 1812 For me 1812 was a deciding point for Canada Would we remain British or become another state in the USA or not Loyalist s or Tories as they were called were not treated well after the American War of Independence Many fled to Atlantic Canada Others to uebec lower Canada and the Eastern Townships while other to Upper Canada Ontario All to start over again Having to clear away forests and plant their crops amongst the stumps It was not an easy choice and having left their comforts and lost nearly everything they had Then in 1812 while Britain was tied up in Europe with Napoleon a new war In reality it was a civil war as most of the new Colonists Loyalists were being forced to make a call to fight against their previous neighbours It was an expensive war and one that should never have happened It could not be afforded and through major blunders on both sides was costing everyone too much to be continued How to end it however was a uestionIn Europe a group of Diplomats American and British tried to figure out how to bring about an acceptable peace treaty to end a war and yet have both sides save face It is very interesting to see how they worked on this and how we Canadians are still living with some of the decisions made in 1814 by these 8 gentlemen Their points of view and hidden agendas and personalities all make for interesting viewsThis was not what I had expected and it was a complete surprise for me Mark carried this off and it certainly made a whole gap in my knowledge of our North American History Please do read

For Honour's Sake the War of 1812 and the Brokering of An Uneasy Peace Read ä 104 Mark Zuehlke ↠ 4 Read Fe in the trenches the horrifying day to day manoeuvring on land and sea and the dramatic negotiations in the Flemish city of Ghent that brought the war to an unsatisfactory end for both sides By focusing on the fraught dispute in which British and American diplomats uarrelled as much amongst themselves as with their adversaries Zuehlke conjures the compromises and backroom deals that yielded conventions resonating in relations between the United States and Canada to this very day From the Hardcover editio A well paced and engaging general history of the War of 1812 and the peace negotiations in Ghent Zuehlke does a fine job sketching the personalities involved and the strategy and aims of both sides Although the narrative has a tendency to shift between the British and American sides a bit too abruptly and tries to cover too many figures in too few paragraphs it still does a fine job telling his storyZuehlke covers the British proposal for an Indian buffer state in the northwest and Great Lakes regions a proposal that uickly died because much of the territory apparently unknown to British policymakers had already been ceded away by the Indians following US coercion And in any case the British cabinet never came around to supporting a buffer state because they wanted to end the war as speedly as possible since Ghent was just a sideshow compared to the ongoing conference in Vienna were the fate of post Napoleonic Europe was being decidedLively and enjoyable Zuelke does hint at such themes as international politics Canadian nationalism and the fate of the Indians but these are never discussed in detail