[Gavin]

Just a note to say I thourougly enjoyed your recent podcast featuring Andrew Lambert discussing the War of 1812.

It was a very insightful podcast about a hugely under discussed war and its place in history.

Purchased Lambert’s book ‘The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812’ within minutes of its concluding.

Please keep up the great work.

[Anonymous1952]

I agree with Prof. Lambert that we on the American side of the pond were taught that the U.S. barely won what was almost a draw. We were also taught that some aspects of the War of 1812 were a continuation of our first war with Britain for our independence.

We were taught that among the issues was the British failure to fully comply with the treaty that granted U.S. independence. My home state of Wisconsin remained under significant British influence from the end of the American Revolution to the 1815 Treaty of Ghent which mandated the final British withdrawal from Wisconsin and other parts of the U.S.

Up until 1815, the British were alleged to be arming the Indians. That could be justified as the Indians were attempting to defend their territories and rights under treaties with the U.S. and to prevent their eventual ethnic cleansing from east of the Mississippi.

Prof. Lambert did point out that the U.S. destroyed the Indians' strength east of the Mississippi and south of what is now the Canadian border. Among the tragic losses for the Indians was that of the British ally Tecumseh who died helping to repel the 1813 U.S. invasion of Canada.

in the podcast Prof. Lambert's emphasized the de facto alliance between the U.S. and the Bonaparte military dictatorship, not the last time in our history we've formed such an ugly alliance.

I appreciated the magazine's report on the British liberation of American slaves during their raids on the southeast U.S. coast. Along with avoiding the history of near extermination of the Indians, Americans avoid dealing with the fact that we were not a truly free nation until the end of slavery in 1865 almost 150 years ago.