 Sound Bite
An entertaining, well-researched study details naval battles and coastal incursions through diaries and regional news articles on the War of 1812.
New England was hard hit by the War of 1812 with Great Britain. The war severely injured the maritime and commercial economy and inflamed the difference in interests between the Northeast and the rest of the country, where agriculture was the mainstay.
The author has combed sources near and far, bringing to life a drama that was international in scope — but so local in impact.
About the Author
Following a management career in federal government with the Interior, Justice, Labor, and Treasury departments, with an emphasis on intergovernmental relations in New England, James Ellis has turned his focus to writing. He is an active contributor to regional magazines and newspapers as well as professional journals and is involved with several historical organizations.
Ellis is also author of Mad Jack Percival: Legend of the Old Navy (2002). A Ruinous and Unhappy War is his second book.
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About the Book
Anticipating the harm another war with England would bring, New England's regional leaders opposed it from the outset. Party politics played a major role. Federalists, dominant in the northeast, at every turn badgered and challenged the war...
Anticipating the harm another war with England would bring, New England's regional leaders opposed it from the outset. Party politics played a major role. Federalists, dominant in the northeast, at every turn badgered and challenged the war policies of the administration and its majority Democratic–Republican Party. New England's churchmen, still heavily influenced by Puritanism, railed against the ungodly actions of the national government. But economic issues proved to be a greater source of dissension.
From earliest times, New England had been tied to the sea. Merchants, fishermen, and others dependent on an open ocean were devastated by the embargoes and blockades of the war. Unemployment deepened, businesses failed, and privation spread.
This book pulls together material from period sources (diaries, journals, logs, letters, government documents, newspapers) scattered throughout the region's archives, libraries, museums, and town halls. The author enlivens the narrative by blending entertaining tales of common folk with the march of epic events and clashes.
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Book News This is Ellis' second book of history since retiring from a management career with the US government. The war was the first actually declared by the fledgling republic, and the first to be prosecuted over the objections of a sizable portion of the citizenry. He focuses on the conduct and impact of the conflict in New England, where the objections were most vociferous. Among the impacts he describes are deepened unemployment, business failures, spreading privation, Nantucket declaring neutrality, the loss of eastern Maine to British troops, and the Royal Navy raiding with impunity all along the coast. He places the severe and degrading terms for peace in the context of the destruction.
(Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Looking back at a year of good reading | More »
Looking back at a year of good reading James Ellis has produced a work that belongs in the collections of serious scholars of American history as well as one that will serve those general readers who enjoy a comprehensive and well-documented study of how regional and political differences marked the growing pains of our young nation. (J.C., 4/3) The Barnstable Patriot
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Pages 224 Year: 2009 LC code: E354.E465 2009 Dewey code: 973.5'2--dc22 BISAC: HIS027110 HISTORY / Military / United States BISAC: HIS036040 HISTORY / United States / 19th Century BISAC: HIS036100 HISTORY / United States / State & Local / New England
Paper ISBN: 978-0-87586-690-1 Price: USD 23.95
eBook ISBN: 978-0-87586-692-5 Price: USD 33.95
Hard Cover ISBN: 978-0-87586-691-8 Price: USD 33.95
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