The War of 1812, Conflict and Deception

The British Attempt to Seize New Orleans and Nullify the Louisiana Purchase

By: Ronald J. Drez

Narrated by: Todd Curless

Perhaps no conflict in American history is more important yet more overlooked and misunderstood than the War of 1812. At the climax of the war, inspired by the defeat of Napoleon in early 1814 and the perceived illegality of the Louisiana Purchase, the British devised a plan to launch a three-pronged attack against the Northern, Eastern, and Southern US borders. Concealing preparations for this strike by engaging in negotiations in Ghent, Britain meanwhile secretly issued orders to seize New Orleans and wrest control of the Mississippi and the lands west of the river. They further instructed British commander General Edward Pakenham not to cease his attack if he heard rumors of a peace treaty. Great Britain even covertly installed government officials within military units with the intention of immediately taking over administrative control once the territory was conquered.

Far from being simply an unnecessary epilogue to the War of 1812, the Battle of New Orleans firmly secured for the United States the territory acquired through the Louisiana Purchase. Drez offers a compelling account of this pivotal moment in American history.

The book is published by Louisiana State University Press.

©2014 Ronald J. Drez (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Ron Drez has written the single most important book on the Battle of New Orleans. His prodigious research pays off big. For the first time we understand the magnitude of Andrew Jackson's grand moment. A terrific read!" (Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior)

"With the riveting narrative skill and psychological insight of the most passionate thriller writer, Drez takes us on an unforgettable excursion into the American past that shines the light of his prodigious research onto the intricately entangled political and military issues behind one of the most pivotal - and least understood - wars in American history." (Kenneth Atchity, former Fulbright professor of American Studies to the University of Bologna)

Dr Drez is Excellent with his research...

Well done and narrator does a good job. Dr Drez is always quite excellent and have tremendous knowledge of his material.

I only wonder if it could have been more streamlined and less focused on just the altogether important aspects and less time on problematic past authors and revisionests.

Excellent summary of history on a war I knew little about

As I’ve started working through the Great Courses on American history, but I noticed I couldn’t find much information on the War of 1812, so decided to give this book a shot.

Overall it’s very well written and full of sound research and interesting nuggets of personal information about the key players. As a minor complaint, the author goes on several longer monologues refuting other historians’ “revisionist history” statements about certain historical events. While I appreciate addressing the body of written work provided by other authors, there are points where it gets boring...especially because I’d never heard those other historians’ claims.

It would be petty to mark a whole star down for that (as maybe these portions are 30-45 minutes of the whole book) so it’s still a 5 star in my opinion.

Read the book and you’ll have fun and learn a lot!

Surprising Facts Rarely Taught

the title of this book really intrigued me though the war of 1812 has not been one that I have spent very much time studying. The story in the background that this author captured really was quite intriguing and helps illuminated many factors above the war in the Battle of New Orleans that have been omitted from what we have traditionally been taught. I would certainly recommend this book. 1 drawback is that the narrator is almost like him male version of Siri and that is a little distracting. he does a nice job of attempting to change and flexion and accent and so forth when quoting a piece of text from somebody's diary or memoirs or the like although I found it to be rather distracting at times. So the narration is it the best though not the worst either and if you can get around that which I think anybody can rather easily Astoria certainly one it makes reading this book worth it.

Extremely detailed and thorough

This is a welcome and in-depth look at an often neglected war. I found myself thinking that this was really the second half of the American Revolution, and perhaps it is appropriate that our national anthem was written near its conclusion. The author does a good job of explaining how most of the fighting took place either at sea, in lakes, or as a result of British fleets attempting to conquer small pieces of our coastline. I was not aware of British atrocities, nor of General Andrew Jackson’s great leadership in this very bloody and prolonged conflict. Apparently some historians belittle, distort, or omit essential facts about this pivotal episode in our history, but the author is quick to call them out and present the truth. The narrator is clear but he could do a little work on his accents and his Latin pronunciation.

Predetermined Outcome

Interesting as an introduction to an under-appreciated piece of US History, with some very pertinent questions and observations, but the author began his quest with a predetermined conclusion, and his book is less about the War, as it is to contradict other interpretations.

Very possibly his disdain for “revisionist history “ has significant merit, but all history is stained by interpretation, and in the end his is largely another version of just that. It is one thing to quarrel with a fact or opinion, but this portrayal loses points for taking the position of absolutism, claiming confidence that his interpretation is correct and any other deficient.

Comprehensive

Very good overall, speaker a bit monotone, but not horribly bad. Hard to find War of 1812 books, and this is the best one I’ve found. Pro-American for sure, but that serves as a nice balance to some false Canadian/British narratives that still circulate on this subject.

A thorough defense of the 1812 war

The 1812 war has been described as a useless conflict with no distinct victor. This well researched book show the error of this conclusion and points to the impact of victory to the United States and in particular the territory of the Louisiana purchase. The reading is somewhat monotone but acceptable for non fiction.

Excellent!

Best history book that I have read. Well researched

The only drawback was the narrator lacked (Audible version) emotion.

Terrible Narrator

The book might be great but the narrator is maybe a robot. Sounds like Stephen Hawkings chair reading to me. Again, the book might be great but if you’re going to choose to listen to an entire book, you want someone who’s pleasant to listen to. I think the narrator plays a critical role, and Todd Curless is either a robot or dreams of becoming one someday.