Daughan may focus on the naval battles, but he covers diplomacy and the land war in good depth. In truth, President Madison does not come out from this war looking very good. This new volume, with its emphasis on the Navy, seemed like a natural for me to hear. I had once read a history of the War of 1812, but it put more emphasis on attacking President James Madison (our fourth president, 1809-1817) than on recounting the major battles. I've always been interested in stories of naval warfare in all ages. All of these were easy audio listens while being full of complicated details without confusing the listener. I've listened to several history books e.g., Intelligence in War (Keegan), Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (Weatherford), I, Claudius (Graves) (I know this is more historical fiction), Abraham (Feiler). Please don't dismiss my review of this book as ignorant fool who isn't studious enough to listen to a work of quality non-fiction. Additionally, with all the different ships and personalities, the ability to quickly re-read a passage or scan for other facts will be a nice benefit. My recommendation, and what I'm going to do buy the physical written book with the aforementioned maps and battle diagrams (I'm assuming and hoping those are in the book).

(Full disclosure, that might have more to do with me being from Utah and our utter lack of any seaworthy body of water (no the GSL is not a seaworthy body of water)). While I consider myself as having above average knowledge of geography, the author makes me feel like an idiot when citing locations of harbors, bays, rivers, etc.

Additionally, referencing a map would be very useful. There is the USS President but also the US President and while the author probably presents a good WRITTEN account, a couple of sentences got me wondering was he talking about the ship or Madison/Jefferson/Adams/Washington (all are in the historical context of the book). Too many different people, too similar of names creates confusion and cause the listener to forget who is attacking who on the high seas. However the minutia is also problematic for the audio account as I found it difficult to follow. This is a fabulously written book with both macro and micro details that present a great overall account of the war of 1812.

American navy war of 1812