Sheppard demonstrates that the colony was a fragmented and pluralistic community before the war and remained so after it. Upper Canadians were divided by racial, religious, linguistic, and class differences and the majority of settlers had no strong ties to either the United States or Britain, with most men avoiding military service during the war. Reviewing the claims submitted for damages attributed to the fighting, he argues that British forces as well as enemy troops were responsible for widespread destruction of private property and concludes that this explains why there was little increase in anti-American feeling after the war. Much of the wartime damage occurred in areas west of York (now Toronto). This was the cause of grievances harboured by settlers in the western part of Upper Canada against their eastern counterparts long after the war had ended. As well, some Upper Canadians profited from wartime activities while others suffered greatly. Only later, in the 1840s when these issues had faded from memory, did Canadians begin to create a favourable version of wartime events. Using garrison records, muster rolls, diaries, newspapers, and damage claims registered after the war, the author delves beyond the rhetoric of wartime loyalties and reveals how the legacy of war complicated colonial politics.

"One of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American political culture is what became of the United States Congress's state portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette during the British invasion of the Capitol, Washington, D.C., on the night of 24-25 August 1814. Conceived by Benjamin Franklin during a diplomatic mission, requested by the American delegates at the height of the War of Independence, and granted by the French king after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, these official full-length images of the French monarchs arrayed in ceremonial magnificence were recently identified as atelier copies after Antoine-François Callet's Louis XVI and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun's Marie-Antoinette (both 1783) and traced through Congress's successive assembly rooms at New York City (1785), Philadelphia (1790), and Washington (1800). The fate of the royal portraits has been difficult to determine due to the incomplete documentary record and conflicting eyewitness accounts. Larkin initially takes a telescopic approach to the problem, moving from British and French production of state portraits to assert political claims in North America and despoliation of Western European countries of their art treasures, to show British and American interests at stake in the practice of looting and incendiary warfare waged across the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay prior to the destruction of the public buildings in Washington, D.C. He then pursues a microscopic approach, analyzing period documents, letters, images, and plans to test the viability of two theories-that the royal portraits were burned by British troops during their occupation of the capital or looted by American scavengers during the chaotic aftermath. While physical evidence of the portrait artifacts remains elusive, this study of the images as objects of desire, danger, and loss breaks new ground for scholars desirous of constituting an art and material history for the War of 1812"--

In early 1815, Secretary of State James Monroe reviewed the treaty with Britain that would end the War of 1812. The United States Navy was blockaded in port; much of the army had not been paid for nearly a year; the capital had been burned. The treaty offered an unexpected escape from disaster. Yet it incensed Monroe, for the name of Great Britain and its negotiators consistently appeared before those of the United States. "The United States have acquired a certain rank amongst nations, which is due to their population and political importance," he brazenly scolded the British diplomat who conveyed the treaty, "and they do not stand in the same situation as at former periods." Monroe had a point, writes Troy Bickham. In The Weight of Vengeance, Bickham provides a provocative new account of America's forgotten war, underscoring its significance for both sides by placing it in global context. The Napoleonic Wars profoundly disrupted the global order, from India to Haiti to New Orleans. Spain's power slipped, allowing the United States to target the Floridas; the Haitian slave revolt contributed to the Louisiana Purchase; fears that Britain would ally with Tecumseh and disrupt the American northwest led to a pre-emptive strike on his people in 1811. This shifting balance of power provided the United States with the opportunity to challenge Britain's dominance of the Atlantic world. And it was an important conflict for Britain as well. Powerful elements in the British Empire so feared the rise of its former colonies that the British government sought to use the War of 1812 to curtail America's increasing maritime power and its aggressive territorial expansion. And by late 1814, Britain had more men under arms in North America than it had in the Peninsular War against Napoleon, with the war with America costing about as much as its huge subsidies to European allies. Troy Bickham has given us an authoritative, lucidly written global account that transforms our understanding of this pivotal war.

The monument to Isaac Brock (1769–1812) on Queenston Heights in Canada, as high as Nelson’s column in London, pays tribute to the military commander of all troops opposing the American invasion of Canada during the War of 1812. Brock’s service during the War of 1812 includes leading the capture of Detroit. He was killed on the morning of 13 October 1812, leading a company of the 49th Foot in a counter-attack on the American lodgement atop Queenston Heights. Although Brock died and his uphill charge against the American muskets failed, the invasion was repulsed soon afterwards. A Matter of Honour focuses on Brock’s career as a military commander and also as a civil administrator for the government of Upper Canada. Early chapters deal with his life and military service up to 1791. The book also records his command of the 49th Regiment in the Low Countries and at Copenhagen up to his arrival in Canada in 1802. Brock spent more time in Canada than any other British general who fought in the War of 1812. He faced a difficult situation in Canada, defending a long frontier with meagre resources. However, he was renowned for his resourcefulness, inspiring leadership and ability to keep opponents off-balance

Between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, Britain evolved from a substantial international power yet relative artistic backwater into a global superpower and a leading cultural force in Europe. In this original and wide-ranging book, Hoock illuminates the manifold ways in which the culture of power and the power of culture were interwoven in this period of dramatic change. Britons invested artistic and imaginative effort to come to terms with the loss of the American colonies; to sustain the generation-long fight against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France; and to assert and legitimate their growing empire in India. Demonstrating how Britain fought international culture wars over prize antiquities from the Mediterranean and Near East, the book explores how Britons appropriated ancient cultures from the Mediterranean, the Near East, and India, and casts a fresh eye on iconic objects such as the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Marbles.

In Duty Bound is an unprecedented look at Upper Canada's forgotten people and the ways in which their lives were by necessity bound in a mutual relationship of duty and obligation to the Upper Canadian state. This neglected area of Canada's history has been preserved, in part, in the form of personal petitions submitted to the lieutenant-governor and legislature for land, government jobs, pensions, pardons and the lessening of court sentences, for compensation for damages done by, or work done for, the state, and for relief. Using these and other previously unexamined government records, J.K. Johnson illustrates that, popular knowledge aside, Upper Canada was not simply a land of self-sufficient farmers and artisans and that many had to turn to and rely on the state for their livelihoods. The major themes of Upper Canada's history, from war and rebellion to immigration and settlement, are well-documented. In Duty Bound fleshes out the lives of ordinary people in Upper Canada and clarifies how several branches of government worked for, or against, the interests of the population.

Covering the first four decades of America, contains alphabetical entries on people, places, organizations, events, movements, laws, works of literature, and other significant social, economic, political, and cultural topics.