Andrew Lambert
The Cultural Construction of the American-British War of 1812
Even as the War of 1812 was being contested, wider political and cultural battle lines were being drawn over the meaning and outcome of the conflict. In the United States partisans of the incumbent Republican Party were quick to seize on scanty fragments of success to promote the ideological construct of a “Second War of Independence.” a necessary and glorious triumph for President Madison and the Party agenda. The real enemy in this war were the New England states, which took little part in the conflict, selling food and lumber to the British. In the west the war was portrayed as a glorious success because it had broken the power of the Native Americans, making the Thames and Horseshoe Bend the decisive battles. Andrew Jackson doubled his popularity in the South by upholding plantation slavery at New Orleans. The repulse of successive American invasions by anglophone and francophone Canadians became an increasingly important element in a nascent national identity. In Britain the war was quickly forgotten, peace had been greeted with relief by a nation exhausted by twenty-two years of world war, while statesmen devoted their efforts to rebuilding Europe, keeping France quiet, Russia as far east as possible, and setting up a balanced state system to avoid future problems. British leaders were familiar with the American triumphalist interpretation; it was still remembered in 1861, when the two nations nearly came to blows.
Andrew Lambert is Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Director of the Laughton Naval History Unit in the War Studies Department. Lambert’s work focuses on the naval and strategic history of the British Empire between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War, and the early development of naval historical writing. His work has addressed a range of issues, including technology, policy-making, regional security, deterrence, historiography, crisis-management and conflict. His many books include: The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia 1853-1856 (1990/2011); “The Foundations of Naval History”: Sir John Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession (1998); Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation (2009); and The Challenge: Britain, Against America in the Naval War of 1812 (2012).
