Buel, Jr. America On The Brink - How The Political Struggle Over The War Of 1812 Almost Destroyed The Young Republic

Abstract

It is ironic that the early republic's party of centralization, the Federalists, opposed what Walter Borneman has recently called "the war that forged a nation." Richard Buel explores this irony and analyzes the political struggle surrounding the War of 1812 in America on the Brink. Drawing from Federalist newspapers, private correspondence, and Congressional records, Buel asserts a revisionist interpretation of the war and events leading to it. He argues that self interested Federalist ideologues caused the war by rejecting the alternative course of economic coercion and undermined U.S. war efforts, nearly destroying the republic.