Americans, as well as Britons, should find this book interesting. You will note that the War of 1812 occurred during part of the period of time that this book covers. Britain was fighting the Napoleonic Wars during the period.
In fact, the two wars are connected. The War of 1812 was caused by issues related to Great Britain's prosecution of the Napoleonic Wars. Interestingly, while the United States and Canada see the War of 1812 as a war in its own right, many people in Europe see the War of 1812 as just a theatre of the Napoleonic Wars.
The Age of Elegance: 1812-1822. By Arthur Bryant. No ratings yet (it's just fairly recently been published). Print list price N/A; digital list price $3.99; Kindle price now
$0.99. Endeavor Press, publisher. 454 pages.
http://www.amazon.com/Age-Elegance-1...e%3A+1812-1822.
Book Description
Britain's first global war...as told by Britain's first great popular historian.
'The Years of Elegance: 1812-1822' is one of the master-works of British narrative history. In his own peerless style, the final volume of a three-part history of the Napoleonic Wars, Bryant tells the compelling story of the conflict with revolutionary France which began in 1793.
Thought of by many as the first world war, fought over four continents and two oceans this war shaped the world for the next century.
For 22 years, starting in 1793, Britain was at war with France
In ‘The Age of Elegance’ Arthur Bryant brings this epic story to a close.
From 1812 onwards, with Napoleon marching into Russia and Wellington's men knocking open the door into Spain behind him, Bryant details the brilliant campaigns which ultimately brought the dictator to his knees.
Bryant charts the road to Waterloo where he describes the battle with unforgettable clarity, and then tells the story of the peacemakers at Vienna.
In final part of the book the author surveys the England that had emerged after so many years of struggle. It was an England rich, powerful, and victorious, overflowing with energy and self-confidence.
He describes both the sources of her power, in agriculture, industry, and commerce, and the depths of injustices, un-redressed wrongs, and simmering discontents that had accumulated under the surface, unperceived by the architects of victory.
He describes how the revolution which the English had mastered in battle nearly overwhelmed them in peace, and closes with a glimpse of the spirit which was able to mitigate those wrongs and move on to the making of the nation's future.