Prologue to War; England and the United States, 1805-1812

by Bradford Perkins

This book is the first full-scale study of the coming of the War of 1812 since the work of Henry Adams. Using materials either overlooked or ignored by other scholars, Mr. Perkins reexamines previous interpretations of the coming of the war. He contends that diplomatic disasters cannot always be explained in rational terms and that emotional factors more often than not dictate the course of history. He shows how the hotheads of the two countries made folly beget folly, until a war that neither side wanted became a reality.

Prologue to War begins in 1805, when the Essex case ended a lengthy period in which Britain, even though she was fighting for her life against Napoleon, treated neutral commerce with relative leniency. Britain increased the impressment of seamen from American ships in order to build up her navy, and instituted a heavy blockade of Europe to deprive Napoleon of essential goods and to preserve British dominance of the Continental market.

Mr. Perkins traces the effort to settle Anglo-American difficulties through the Monroe-Pinckney treaty of 1806, the Erskine agreement and the order in Council of 1809, and the repeal (too late to prevent the American declaration of war) of the Orders in Council in 1812. The British government, while desiring American neutrality, felt it neither possible nor necessary to pay a high price for it, and the pressure of the Napoleonic wars engendered a hostile attitude in England, which, combined with contempt for American weakness, discouraged substantial concessions to the United States.

Mr. Perkins maintains that Jefferson and Madison mishandled the foreign policy of the United States, embarrassing America by making claims neither they nor the country was prepared to back with adequate weapons. As a consequence, a growing feeling of humiliation — of a threat to national honor and self-respect — developed in the United States, and in the end, although most Americans clung to a hope of peace, there was no alternative but war.

This work rests upon far broader examination of English sources than has any previous study. The author was the first American diplomatic historian to be admitted to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle and was the first scholar to use the Spencer Perceval papers since Henry Adams examined half of them some seventy years ago.

Genres: History

457 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1961

About the author

Bradford Perkins was an American historian known for his influential work on American diplomatic and foreign relations history. The son of historian Dexter Perkins, he taught at UCLA before joining the University of Michigan, where he spent most of his career and later became Professor Emeritus. A Guggenheim Fellow and Bancroft Prize recipient, he also served as president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and lectured internationally.

Reviews

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched history of the war’s origins, Perkins covers such subjects as the 1806 negotiations, Jefferson’s embargo, the Chesapeake incident, and the rise of the war hawks. The history recounted can get somewhat complicated at times, but in the end Perkins argues that impressment and Britain’s orders in council were the most important causes. He also argues that American complaints of British interference in Indian affairs are overblown and that neither government really wanted war.

Sometimes Perkins’ judgement seems a little harsh; he blasts British officers for their “paranoid attitude of whining superiority,” but these attitudes were quite common for Englishmen at the time, whose status as a maritime and commercial power made them quite intolerant of neutrals. Perkins also criticizes Jefferson and Madison for indecision and failure of leadership, but these parts are more well-argued and convincing.

Through and interesting.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the middle of a series of books in which Perkins examines the diplomatic relationship between the United States and England in the Early Republic. It ought to be "Britain", but his focus is political and rarely ranges outside of London when considering the British perspective; likewise his United States is generally Washington or another major metropolitan area.