SOURCE: A review of The Invasion of Canada, Volume One: 1812–13, in The new York Times Book Review, February 22, 1981, pp. 18-19.

In the following brief review, Yohalem credits Breton for providing a "rousing" historical novel.

Pierre Berton, a Canadian journalist with 18 works of nonfiction to his credit, writes popular history as it should more often be written, exciting but carefully documented, in a clear, somewhat classical style. His subject is our (but not Canada's) most pointless war, the War of 1812, a tragicomedy of bungled maneuvers and fouled communications carried out with a farcical gentility that soon degenerated into savagery.

Neither side wished to fight. The Americans were grossly unprepared, but didn't realize it, thanks to the 30 years of back-patting that followed the Revolution. The British had their hands full fighting most of Europe—indeed, President Madison said he would never have declared war if he had thought Napoleon would...