Some Musings and Resources on the War of 1812

This month is the bicentennial of the start of the War of 1812. President James Madison declared war on Great Britain two hundred years ago today, June 18, 1812.

If the War of 1812 has a reputation among non-historians, it's that American War that no one knows anything about today. I disagree; I think the Spanish-American War and the Mexican-American War are even less known, to say nothing of the Quasi-War with France or the Barbary Wars (not that I'm an expert on any of these myself). America was pretty bellicose in the 19th Century.

However, the War of 1812 rarely ever gets the spotlight except now, because of its bicentennial. I believe that the reason it's not remembered the way it could be is that many historians call it a second American Revolution. If you like to take a patriotic view of the past, it's not particularly glorious that we went to war for freedom from Britain a second time. So, the war is more interesting to historians than to Americana buffs, and honestly, a lot of how we hear about history comes from that second group. 

The United States fought England over control of the North American continent, and because the Americans felt the British were interfering with their right and ability to compete in the marketplace of transatlantic trade. The war ended in a stalemate (according to most U.S. historians -- Canadians disagree), but Europe began to see America as a legitimate player in the global marketplace and foreign affairs.

Much of Cambridge, like much of New England, opposed the War of 1812. The seaport economy of the region had suffered from the Embargo Act of 1807, which had been intended as a less drastic way to address some of the same issues that led to the war. Cantabridgians involved with the War of 1812 were likely either in the Cambridge Light Infantry, a force of about 50 men,1 or in the Navy or the Marines, sailing from the nearby Charlestown Navy Yard. 

There are a number of great resources on this often-ignored war coming out of the woodwork for the bicentennial.  Here are a few.

• Speaking of the Charlestown Navy Yard, the USS Constitution Museum has a number of great resources on the war, including this short overview, a silly but addictive online game portraying the life of a Navy sailor during the war, and of course, events and exhibits at the museum itself. The Navy Yard itself is a National Park Service Site, and Navy offers free tours of the ship USS Constitution. 

• Historian James Ellis spoke with Radio Boston on why New Englanders opposed the war. You can listen to the discussion or read the transcript of  "Why New England Almost Seceded Over the War of 1812" on their website.

• The factoids in Smithsonian Magazine's article The 10 Things You Didn't Know About the War of 1812 range from the mundane (#1, the war needs to be re-branded, because it formally lasted until 1814 and isolated fighting continued until 1815) to the poetic (#3, the rockets really did have red glare). Smithsonian has a number of great articles on the war, collected here.

• The interactive War of 1812 Timeline presented by the Naval History and Heritage Command's War of 1812 Bicentennial Website, "Our Flag Was Still There" is a great source of information. It is a little hard to scroll through in some browsers, but it has a map that displays the location of events as you click on them, and it includes international events with indirect relationships to the war as well as events of the war itself. Overall, the website is a little flag-wavy and American-centric, but still a good resource.

• If you prefer something flag-wavy and Canadian-centric, read the text of a speech given by Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore about plans for the Bicentennial.

If you want to learn more, there are a number of histories of the subject. Here are a few:

• The War of 1812: A Short History, by Donald R. Hickey. University of Illinois Press.
• 1812: The War That Forged A Nation, by Walter R. Borneman. Harper Perennial.
• 1812: The Navy's War, by George C. Daughan. Basic Books.

1. Paige, Lucius Robinson. History of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1630-1877: With a Genealogical Register. Boston: H.O. Houghton and Co., 1877. Page 431.

Transportation Here and There

The folks over at the Cambridge Historical Society must agree that with so much discussion of the T, it's a great time to look back at other debates in the history of transportation in our area. They recently blogged about the Inner Belt, a proposed interstate that would have complemented the Central Artery to form a loop around and through the inner Boston area, including Cambridge. The project was debated from the 1950's through the 1970's and ultimately rejected. CHS will host a series of three lectures in April about the Inner Belt.

Here at Cambridge Considered, you can expect a post about the significance of bridges in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. I'll be updating soon with information about how bridges affected social, political, economic, and legal change. 

In non-transportation news, I'm also working on a post about Antidisestablishmentarianism in Cambridge. Stay tuned!

Guest blog posts at The Uncataloged Museum

February 9 update -- my second guest post is up!

January 18 --
For those of you interested in art or in museums, please check out my three guest posts at The Uncataloged Museum, about my experiences as a docent at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (Gardner herself is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery... I'll keep you updated if I find any more Cambridge connections). Here's an excerpt from the first post:

As a museum professional, I believe that working directly with visitors should be a lifelong practice for me.  I had thought for a long time that I might want to volunteer at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a small, beautiful Boston institution full of art from all time periods. Until recently, I had too many other things going on in my life, including being a tour guide at two history museums, but this fall, after starting a desk job, I realized now might be the time. It’s also a very exciting time to be at the Gardner, because they just completed a new wing, opening to the public on January 19. They recruited a large group of new volunteers, and I applied just in time. In November and December, I attended a series of trainings to get oriented to the museum’s story, the collection, and how to help visitors have a great experience.

While I’m excited to get involved at the Gardner, I’m a historian, and there’s a voice in my head asking,  “What do I know about art?

read on in my post, Learning to Talk About Art.

The Hurricane of 1938 -- a mini-post

Dear readers,


My apartment looks like it was hit by an earthquake and then a hurricane! Not because of the actual events, but because I am moving to a new apartment on Wednesday, and everything is half-packed and messy. Here in Cambridge, we have been fairly lucky... it seems like everyone prepared for Hurricane Irene, but all we got was rain and high winds.


Because of my move, I haven't had the time or energy to finish the upcoming Very Brief History of Cambridge, 1900-2000 post. If you want some topical Cambridge history, take a look at this news reel from the Great Hurricane of 1938, the biggest hurricane to affect the area on record. While locals called it the Great Hurricane, others named it the New England Hurricane, the Yankee Clipper, or the Long Island Express. The current conventions for naming hurricanes using an alphabetical list of people's names has its origins in the 1950's.(1)






(1) "Worldwide Tropical Cyclone Names," National Weather Service online, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml accessed 8-28-11