This lively, detailed history of "Mr. Madison's War" takes you beyond the schoolbook facts and into the political, economic and diplomatic secrets that led to war. Hickey explores the anti-war rioting in Baltimore; the pre-war skirmish between the Chesapeake and the H.M.S. Leopold; the cruise of the U.S.S. Essex in the Pacific; the attempted invasion and annexation of Canada; the battles with the Native Americans along the frontier; and the Treaty of Ghent that ended the conflict.