| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Richard Buel, Jr. America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2005. PP. 302. $29.95.
The literature on the War of 1812 has grown considerably over the past fifteen years. New studies, primarily military in their emphases, have increased significantly our understanding of this "forgotten conflict." Yet few works have revisited the war's political and diplomatic character. Richard Buel, Jr.'s book takes up the task, offering a fresh look at the political contest surrounding the war. This, however, is only one of Buel's historiographical ambitions. He is equally interested in clarifying the impact of Federalist behavior on early national affairs. Taking aim at older works trumpeting the Federalists' nation-building contributions, and newer works emphasizing their more progressive views on women, Indians, and slavery, Buel labels post-1800 Federalists "the notable exception" among a generation of relatively responsible national leaders (p. 9). Castigating Federalists for "orchestrating the extremism they pretended to restrain," Buel lays the War of 1812, and a decade of disunionist danger, squarely in their laps (p. 3).	1
In advancing this argument, Buel separates himself from older interpretations emphasizing War Hawk belligerence and newer analyses focusing on James Madison's longstanding goal of securing American commercial autonomy. Instead, he traces the war to the machinations of disgruntled Federalists—a minority, but still culturally and financially empowered minority, whose politically vindictive carping forced the Republican administration to extremes in order to retain political credibility.	. . .

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