The War of Jenkins’ Ear: The Forgotten War for North and South America and the World that Made It: 1739–1742

Historian Gaudi (African Kaiser) delivers an action-packed account of a largely forgotten 18th-century conflict between Britain and Spain over trade in the Americas. Gaudi documents decades of rising tensions between the two countries and describes how the Spanish guarda costa abused its right to stop and search British merchant ships in the West Indies for contraband. In 1731, Spanish privateer Juan de León Fandiño cut off British captain Robert Jenkins’s ear during a search of his trading brig Rebecca; Jenkins returned to England with his severed ear “preserved in a bottle” and presented it to King George II. The incident helped spark “arguably the first ‘world war’ known to history,” according to Gaudi. He spotlights Adm. Edward Vernon, whose capture of Porto Bello in Panama launched the war in 1739; Gen. James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, who led an ill-fated invasion of Spanish Florida; and George Washington’s half brother Lawrence Washington, who fought under Admiral Vernon and named Mt. Vernon after him. Gaudi’s extensively researched narrative clarifies the historical context without sacrificing drama and color, though it’s short on analysis. Still, early American history buffs will relish this comprehensive treatment of an obscure yet consequential episode. (Nov.)