The History Book Club discussion

This is the thread to discuss the War of 1812 and the Native Americans' involvement.

There were a variety of battles that ensued.

http://www.galafilm.com/1812/e/locati...

Source: War of 1812

This is a brand new release covering this interesting period of Native American history; "The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies" by Alan Taylor.

by Alan Taylor
Reviews:
"Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Taylor (William Cooper' s Town) presents the War of 1812 not as the conventionally understood second war for independence, but as a civil war waged in the context of a U.S.-Canadian boundary barely separating kindred peoples, recently and incompletely divided by the revolution. , Upper Canada (Ontario) was the scene of bitter conflict between two sets of immigrants: Loyalist refugees from the Revolutionary War and more recent American arrivals hoping to bring the region into the U.S. In New England, antiwar sentiment was strong enough to bring the region close to secession. Irish immigrants, many of them republican in sympathy, found Canada, with its developing monarchical ethos, less than welcoming. The Indians of the Northwest found themselves sandwiched between two alien and expansionist cultures unconcerned for Native Americans' welfare. The result was a drawn-out, indecisive war, but in the long run the four-way conflict that Taylor so convincingly describes was decisive in transforming a permeable frontier into a boundary separating the king' s subject and the republic' s citizen." - Publishers Weekly

"Geographically situated along Lakes Erie and Ontario, Taylor’s thoroughly researched history of the War of 1812 examines the political predicaments of the region’s settlers and Indians. The ambiguity of allegiance that prevailed before the war evaporated; British officials insisted that if born a subject, one was forever a subject owing loyalty. Illustrating such wartime pressure on individuals, Taylor perceptively portrays how people coped with or capitalized on the unsettled times. The question of allegiance to empire or republic animates many of Taylor’s mininarratives, such as the treatment meted outto each side’s prisoners of war and spies. American-born Canadians, Irish immigrants, and Indian tribes: each group, Taylor explains, experienced a sort of civil war, not in organized battles, but in being polarized by the overt military war waged along the Great Lakes and the Niagara River. In discussing dissenters, recruitment for armies, and despoliation of farms and villages, Taylor illuminates an arena generally omitted from military histories of the war. Battles and campaigns do connect his account, however, which will stand history collections in good stead for a very long while. - Gilbert Taylor (Booklist)

Iroquois in the War of 1812

by Carl Benn (no photo)

Synopsis:

Until now, the story of Iroquois participation in the War of 1812 has not received detailed examination, and there have consequently been major gaps in our understanding of the Iroquois, their relations with Euroamerican society, and the course of the war itself. The Iroquois in the War of 1812 proves that, in fact, the Six Nations' involvement was 'too significant to ignore.'

Benn explores this involvement by focusing on Iroquois diplomatic, military, and cultural history during the conflict. He looks at the Iroquois' attempts to stay out of the war, their entry into hostilities, their modes of warfare, the roles they played in different campaigns, their relationships with their allies, and the effects that the war had on their society. He also details the military and diplomatic strength of the Iroquois during the conflict, despite the serious tensions that plagued their communities.

This account reveals how the British benefited more than the Americans from the contributions of their Iroquois allies, and underscores how important the Six Nations were to the successful defence of Canada. It will appeal to general readers in both Canada and the United States and will have relevance for students and scholars of military, colonial, and Native history.

Tecumseh and Brock: The War of 1812

by James Laxer (no photo)

Synopsis:

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the British Empire is at the height of its ascendancy; Napoleonic France is struggling to maintain its position as a world power; and the incumbent American empire is quickly expanding its territory, while the Native peoples struggle to establish their own confederacy, their own independent nation.

Bestselling author, historian, political scientist, and scholar James Laxer offers a fresh and compelling view of this decisive war — which historians have long treated as a second American revolution — by bringing to life the Native struggle for nationhood and sovereignty; the battle between the British Empire and the United States over Upper and Lower Canada; and finally, at the heart of it, the unlikely friendship and political alliance of two towering figures of history: Tecumseh, the Shawnee chieftain and charismatic leader of the Native confederacy, and Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, protector and defender of the British Empire.

Highly engaging and impeccably researched, Tecumseh and Brock is a powerful work of history, an epic story of empires and emerging nations, of politics and power, and of two leaders whose legacy still lives on today.

Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812

by Kathryn E. Holland Braund (no photo)

Synopsis:

"Tohopeka" contains a variety of perspectives and uses a wide array of evidence and approaches, from scrutiny of cultural and religious practices to literary and linguistic analysis, to illuminate this troubled period.

Tecumseh: A Life

by John Sugden (no photo)

Synopsis:

If Sitting Bull is the most famous Indian, Tecumseh is the most revered. Although Tecumseh literature exceeds that devoted to any other Native American, this is the first reliable biography--thirty years in the making--of the shadowy figure who created a loose confederacy of diverse Indian tribes that exted from the Ohio territory northeast to New York, south into the Florida peninsula, westward to Nebraska, and north into Canada.

A warrior as well as a diplomat, the great Shawnee chief was a man of passionate ambitions. Spurred by commitment and served by a formidable battery of personal qualities that made him the principal organizer and the driving force of confederacy, Tecumseh kept the embers of resistence alive against a federal government that talked cooperation but practiced genocide following the Revolutionary War.

Tecumseh does not stand for one tribe or nation, but for all Native Americans. Despite his failed attempt at solidarity, he remains the ultimate symbol of eavor and courage, unity and fraternity.

Thank you, Jerome, for the addition.

Native Memoirs from the War of 1812

by Carl Benn (no photo)

Synopsis:

Native peoples played major roles in the War of 1812 as allies of both the United States and Great Britain, but few wrote about their conflict experiences. Two famously wrote down their stories: Black Hawk, the British-allied chief of the still-independent Sauks from the upper Mississippi, and American soldier William Apess, a Christian convert from the Pequots who lived on a reservation in Connecticut. Carl Benn explores the wartime passages of their autobiographies, in which they detail their decisions to take up arms, their experiences in the fighting, their broader lives within the context of native-newcomer relations, and their views on such critical issues as aboriginal independence.

Scholars, students, and general readers interested in indigenous and military history in the early American republic will appreciate these important memoirs, along with Benn's helpful introductions and annotations.