Quantcast Author Interview with Walter R. Borneman from
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Marlene M. Whyte  Walter R. Borneman on 1812  Q: What's so
important about the War of 1812? A: This is the war that takes
eighteen very provincial states and forges them—after
considerable trials and tribulations—into one nation poised to
expand across the American continent. That notion will be
tested, of course, two generations later, but the sense of truly
national unity that develops in the short decade between former
vice president Aaron Burr's plot to seize his own western empire
and Andrew Jackson's stunning victory at New Orleans is quite
remarkable.  Q: So, why did the United States declare war on
Great Britain? A: There were three major issues at the time, any
one of which alone probably would not have precipitated war, but
taken together were enough to tip the scale. Great Britain
routinely stopped American ships and impressed sailors into its
navy; Great Britain seized American ship