The Four Wars of 1812

June 2012 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the War of 1812. Most people know the War of 1812 as the military conflict between Great Britain and the United States that lasted from 1812 until 1815, but the truth is that Canada, including Canadian First Peoples, and Native Americans were caught up in the war too. This highly visual book with photographs and maps supplied by the Canadian War Museum and text by distinguished historian Peter MacLeod, examines the War of 1812 from the diverse perspectives of American, British, Canadian, and Native participants. For Canadians, the War of 1812 was all about American invasions. For Americans, it was about standing up to Britain. For the British, it was an annoying sideshow to the Napoleonic Wars raging in Europe. For Native Americans, it was a desperate struggle for freedom and independence as they fought to defend their homelands. Canadians and Americans have used the War of 1812 as a source for nation-building narratives, centred on their stories of the war. But all four groups fought and remembered their own War of 1812. Viewing the conflict through the eyes of the four principal combatants will provide readers with a better appreciation of the War of 1812, a crucial event in Canadian history.

The book's publication will coincide with the opening of a major corresponding exhibit at the Canadian War Museum about the War of 1812, which will run from June 15, 2012 to January 6, 2013.