The Dawn's Early Light Book

In telling his story, Lord's work is clearly not intended to be a formal study because analysis and thesis is generally eschewed. Lord uses his considerable skills to tell a compelling tale by weaving together often trivial historical detail into an understandable and engaging narrative accessible to a lay reader. Compelling and often riveting, The Dawn's Early Light employs a journalistic style that imparts facts while retaining a sense of sensationalism and dramatic color. The lack of analysis was somewhat distracting for me because the story's many vignettes and plot lines compel the reader to wonder what the significance is. And usually Lord leaves the question unanswered. Nevertheless, as the story unfolds, the mosaic of scenes combine to form an image in the reader's mind that constitutes an answer. In this way, Lord presents views of events and personalities without explicitly stating or arguing those interpretations.

What I found great about the book was Lord's presentation of both the British and American sides of the tale, moving the story from government officials, to admirals and generals, to soldiers and ordinary citizens, all of whom were caught up in conflict and overtaken by events. In addition to the well-known American themes of inept leadership, ill preparedness, and the low quality of the militia when confronting the British regulars (many of them veterans of the brutal Peninsular War against Napoleon's troops) in combat, less well-known British perspectives are offered: government instructions that did little to dissuade army-navy rivalry; the Chesapeake operations of Admiral Cochrane (who hated Americans with a passion) and Admiral Cockburn (who did not particularly hate Americans despite being hated by them for burning Washington D.C.) and the Duke of Wellington's remarks on the limits of descent to produce victory and assessment of British strategic options help explain British diplomatic moves at the Ghent peace talks.

Unfortunately, the book focuses almost exclusively on events in the Chesapeake Bay. Composed of a preface and thirteen chapters, eight chapters of the book are devoted to events culminating with the burning of Washington DC; an additional three chapters narrate the British attack at Baltimore; one chapter relates events leading to the Peace of Ghent; and the final chapter discusses events leading to the battle of New Orleans and provides the book's conclusion. The preface places the thirteen chapters in historical context by providing a synthesized and, for some historians, too concise synopsis of events leading up to the summer of 1814. Compared to the richness of the story in the first eleven chapters, some readers will be disappointed with the brief treatment of the treaty negotiations and the New Orleans operation. Oddly, the book also omits military events along the Niagara Frontier, the naval ship-building race on Lake Ontario, and only briefly references military operations in New York and political upheaval in New England.

But in all, The Dawn's Early Light is worth reading because it is a good example of well-written and well-researched popular history. It serves as a reminder that history is not only analysis, synthesis, and thesis but also a story of humanity featuring all the drama of the theater.