1812: A Nation Emerges

Early 19th-century wartime personalities are the focus of this illuminating companion book to the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery's commemorative exhibit marking the bicentennial of the second war between Great Britain and the United States. The conflict's familiar episodes%E2%80%94the burning of the capitol, the attack on Baltimore, and the Battle of New Orleans%E2%80%94are briefly detailed and lushly illustrated. But this book from Hart, the Gallery's senior historian; and Penman, the exhibit's assistant curator; gets its distinctive heft from the stunning collection of portraits and brief but informative bios of famous military and political leaders of the era, including James Madison, Andrew Jackson, and Napoleon, as well as lesser-known figures like Zebulon Pike, who led an attack into Canada and is immortalized by a Coloradan summit bearing his name. Especially noteworthy are the profiles of American Indian leaders, like Governor Blacksnake (whose daguerreotype portrait is one of the book's most arresting), who tried to defend their territories and ways of life through ultimately futile alliances with the British. The authors also go beyond the beloved First Lady Dolley Madison to look at the lives of other prominent women who carved out unique places in American society during an intensely patriarchal era. Scholars may be miffed to find little or no new information here, but these portraits provide a remarkable glimpse into the people that fought in the U.S.'s second struggle for independence. Photos & illus. (June)