1812: The Navy's War

By: George C. Daughan

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, America's prospects looked dismal. It was clear that the primary battlefield would be the open ocean, but America's war fleet, only 20 ships strong, faced a practiced British navy of more than a thousand men-of-war. Still, through a combination of nautical deftness and sheer bravado, the American navy managed to take the fight to the British and turn the tide of the war: on the Great Lakes, in the Atlantic, and even in the eastern Pacific.

In 1812: The Navy's War, prize-winning historian George C. Daughan tells the thrilling story of how a handful of heroic captains and their stalwart crews overcame spectacular odds to lead the country to victory against the world's greatest imperial power. A stunning contribution to military and national history, 1812: The Navy's War is the first complete account in more than a century of how the U.S. Navy rescued the fledgling nation and secured America's future.

©2011 George C. Daughan (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The War of 1812 was America's first great naval war, and George Daughan tells the story, from the coast of Brazil to the Great Lakes, from election campaigns to grand strategy to ship-to-ship combat. Sweeping, exciting and detailed." (Richard Brookhiser)

"A solidly researched, well-crafted account of U.S. sea power in the War of 1812… Daughan’s achievement is contextualizing the effect of [the U.S. Navy’s] victories…. What kept the peace, Daughan argues provocatively, was America’s post-war commitment to 'a strong navy, an adequate professional army, and the financial reforms necessary to support them' - in other words, an effective deterrent." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Vietor’s timing and pacing are perfectly aligned with the narrative style of the text." ( Audiofile)

A Great End-to-End Review of the War of 1812

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Covers multiple angles of the War of 1812, not just the Navy. Includes Army battles, US politics, Napoleon's wars, etc. Everything that affected this war.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The US Navy captains who didn't give a crap about British superiority at sea and took the fight to the British again and again

What does Marc Vietor bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Proper pronunciations of all the names and sites

Any additional comments?

A bit hard to keep track of all the names and places. It was fun to listen to the battles around Buffalo and Niagara Falls since I grew up there, but the rest of the places were hard to keep up with. I found myself checking Google maps later

Compelling!

Would you listen to 1812: The Navy's War again? Why?

I would listen to it again because there is so much detail around the lesser known stories of this important conflict.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

What about Marc Vietor’s performance did you like?

He has the perfect voice for historical narratives. His transition to British accents was seamless.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I would actually sit in my car until the end of a chapter.

Great read....

Overall, an excellent read. I am not that familiar with the subject matter so cannot opine on the accuracy/completeness, but from an popular history perspective outstanding.

Excellent Book and intriguing story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, very interesting facts about American in it's infancy and how we muddled through in this early war.

What about Marc Vietor’s performance did you like?

HIs emphasis was always spot on.

the most I've enjoyed a book in a long time

This book depicts the early adventures of Americans at sea during one of the most important time periods in history.

I found the sea battles enthralling. It's not surprising that sailing on those kinds of vessels is so romantized.

It seemed very evident that America needed this war. We needed it to solidify and preserve the soverign foundations of the country.

The Forgotten War

What made the experience of listening to 1812: The Navy's War the most enjoyable?

The reader. Marc Vietor is an excellent reader, with a good combination of voice talents to keep what I'm sure was a slog of a read interesting for more than 10 hours.

Would you recommend 1812: The Navy's War to your friends? Why or why not?

Only if you're history-minded. The book is absolutely dense with unnecessary detail about individual ships and their crews. I really didn't need to know the number of crewmen on a ship that only appeared as part of a list of ships sunk in a battle.

Tedious but worthwhile

Where does 1812: The Navy's War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the middle.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Did not care for the book until the end, now I think it's fine!

Important Book

Any additional comments?

Tried to cram too many stories into novel. Better look up 1800's nautical terms before you begin. Although this was an important time in our history as a nation the book was all over the place.

Courage and incompetence

The War of 1812 always gets short shrift in school, leading a lot of us to assume it was just a minor skirmish. I suppose in some ways it was. But there was still a lot going on, and this book does its part to fill in the blanks. Daughan does a great job setting up the background for the war. The specific issues of trade and impressment and how it was all related to the Napoleonic campaigns, the non-military tactics employed, the eventual breakdown, and the territorial designs of the US and Great Britain over Canada and the "Northwest".

Madison does not come off well in this story. In fact the partisan rivalry between Republicans and Federalists sounds all too familiar to the times in which we live. Madison may have been a great political thinker but he was a lousy war president. Tales of American military and political incompetence abound during this conflict. It would be funny if it weren't so shameful and tragic.

Daughan spends a lot of time on the details of individual military encounters. This really helped bring home the reality of men in the field dealing with what was right in front of them, as opposed to the orders reaching them after days or weeks from people in Washington who had no firsthand sense of what was going on. It also helped confirm that all the details in the Jack Aubrey books and the Hornblower books are pretty accurate.

The two events everyone associates with this war--the burning of Washington and the bombardment of Fort McHenry--turn out to be rather peripheral in the scheme of the overall campaign. Which isn't to say they aren't important.

It's easy in a history to have the thesis get lost in recounting details. But Daughan keeps revisiting his underlying premise that the US naval forces played an important role in changing the attitude of the British toward the US and contributing to the long peaceful affiliation the two countries have shared since that time. While Daughan addresses the issue of privateers, I couldn't help feeling that that story did not get proper weight. Perhaps someone else will tell that story someday.

Excellent and exciting account of the subject

My only kvetch Perry didn't wait for high tide to float his boats over the bar (There are no tides on the Great Lakes) other than that, an excitng and compelling account on an often overlooked part of American history