| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic. By Richard Buel Jr. (New York: Palgrave, 2005. xiv, 302 pp. $29.95, ISBN 1-4039-6238-3.)
The title of Richard Buel Jr.'s new book is misleading. This study is more about the run-up to the War of 1812 than the war itself, and the evidence presented does not demonstrate that the nation was on the verge of destruction. The focus is also narrower than the title might suggest. Buel examines the contest for power that Massachusetts Federalists waged with their Republican opponents in the state and in Washington. Other Federalists, even in New England, play only a minor role in his story.	1
Buel's research in political sources—the Annals of Congress, Massachusetts records, period newspapers, and contemporary letters—has been commendably thorough, but he has not cast his net wide enough. Because he apparently has not read widely in the diplomatic and military literature of the period, his treatment of important issues—such as the Essex decision, the Fox blockade, the Monroe-Pinkney Treaty, the Chesapeake affair, the restrictive system, and the military campaigns of 1812 and 1813—is marred by small errors. While these errors do no fundamental damage to his thesis, they suggest that he should have spent more time mastering the public issues that generated the intense political controversy that is the subject of his study.	. . .

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