Ladies in regency dress, men in military uniforms - it must be a War of 1812 Symposium! Walking the Razor's Edge: A Continent in Play was the theme for the this special Living History Conference held in Hamilton on March 2. There was a great turn-out of re-enactors, public historians, cultural interpreters, academic historians and War of 1812 history-enthusiasts eager to share, learn and debate stories and ideas of the War itself and how it is interpreted to the public.

The day’s keynote speakers were historian and authors Dr. Andrew Lambert (The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812) and Dr. Donald Hickey (The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Don’t Give up the Ship: Myths of the War of 1812). The hardest part of being a keynote speaker at a one-day conference on a complex subject like the War of 1812, is that they had to rush through their books, ideas and stories. Luckily, the enthusiastic audience was energized for debate and further learning. We sat down with Lambert and Hickey for a feature chat regarding some of the issues surrounding the public’s perception and consumption of the history of the War of 1812 and the ways that academic and public historians interpret the story of the War to the public.

With both Dr. Lambert and Dr. Hickey having had their recent works newly published, one wonders what challenges they have may have faced when researching and writing about the War of 1812. One common issue that they have both dealt with, according to Hickey, is that this war, is a “forgotten conflict,” both here and especially in Britain.

Both authors had easy access to a plethora of information - Lambert with Britain’s naval records and Hickey with American war records on microfilm. But both authors kept hitting similar obstacles: there is not a great deal of interest from the wider public in the North American story of the global 1812 conflict.

Similarly, it was recently revealed in a study conducted by the Globe & Mail that the government’s promotion and commemoration of the War of 1812 resonated very little with the Canadian public.

If this war was such an important turning point in the creation of Canada as a nation, as both Lambert and Hickey argued it had been in their respective talks, then why has there been such an apathetic reception of the War’s commemoration? Lambert attributed this apathy to the fact that this was not a titanic war, that there are very few Canadians who can directly connect themselves with any ancestors who fought or lived during the war, and that there are no major symbols, such as Vimy Ridge for the First World War, that Canadians as a nation can rally around. Conversely, Hickey espoused that any polls showing this lack of interest should be taken with a grain of salt. He argued that sometimes “left-leaning journalists do not like to support promotion of the war.”

A point raised in debate throughout the symposium was a need for reexamination of how historians of all stripes have interpreted the war to the public. Have we focused enough on messages and stories of the War that the public can stand behind ?

Ask someone on the street about the War of 1812 and it’s rare that Laura Secord and her chocolates don’t arise in conversation. With a war fought so long in the past, it’s very difficult for historians and interpreters to cut through the myths and tall tales of the conflict to get to the truth.

Dr. Lambert and Dr. Hickey were kind enough to share their strategies for dealing with these kinds of challenges.

With the War of 1812 it was sometimes simple to see a “nationalist agenda” in the stories that were created, says Lambert. “The past can be created to help the present, for use as a political tool.” Hickey notes that mythology is comforting. “Mythology is a spectrum, from small stories to large histories, they are like hamburgers and chips - the comfort food of history. Despite writing to correct the myths, they always pop back up again. It’s hard to get rid of them.”

Both authors suggested that the public, while they may enjoy the myths, usually prefer the truth and that public historians and interpreters should work to encourage the public to seek the truth about the conflict.

Finally, the one question that seems to continue to plague historians on both sides of the border, is who actually won the War of 1812? Why is it so difficult to come to a consensus?

Dr. Lambert said that trying to answer this question involved “political football”, he says that America will never admit to their defeat because it would be “pushing a view that challenges the normal orthodoxy.”

Dr. Hickey felt that it “depended on the context.” He believes that it is easy to argue America’s defeat due to the fact that they did not achieve the war aims that they had set out at the beginning of the war. We presume that Dr. Hickey may have played to his audience at the symposium but both believe there will never be a consensus and that energies and resources should be used in communication deeper and more meaningful histories about the War to the public.

Perhaps there will never be a consensus and perhaps Canadians will never feel as strongly about this war as the interpreters and historians who attended the symposium. The Living History Conference and War of 1812 Symposium and other public forums are important because they help to foster discussion and debate, ensuring that in one way or another, the War of 1812 will never be forgotten.

— Text by Adrian Petry, MA and Laura Piticco MA.