When the U.S. Went to War with Canada: Competing Narratives of the 1812 War July 17, 2012

A lecture by Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy , Kluge Fellow

Once hailed as the Second War of Independence, The War of 1812 is now a forgotten war in the United States. In Canada, however, the conflict remains a central event in national history. Two hundred years later, it is still celebrated as the moment when the colonies reasserted their loyalty to the Crown by rejecting annexation to the United States. In the decades after the end of the war, writers and historians on both sides of the border articulated distinct and competing narratives about the conflict, its causes, and its outcome. These variations prove not only that, beyond linguistic and cultural commonalities, 19th-century Canada and the U.S. represented two coherent and distinct national communities, but also illuminate the North American dimension of the larger transatlantic contest between monarchy and republicanism.

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