Anthony S. Pitch is the author of a number of books including The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814, a selection of the History Book Club and winner of the Arline Custer Memorial Prize and Maryland Historical Society's annual book award. He has been featured on outlets ranging from NPR to The History Channel to C-Span to Fox News and is a highly sought-after public speaker. A former journalist in England, Africa, and Israel, Pitch has been a broadcast editor for the Associated Press and a senior writer for US News and World Report's Books division. He lives in a Washington, DC, suburb.
To this day, stones that bear the burn marks of the fire set by the British in the War of 1812 can be seen on the White House, but little thought is given to their context. Pitch attempts to bring alive that time of humiliation and triumph for the young republic, a time too much eclipsed by the American Revolution and the Civil War. A naturalized American born in England, Pitch is perhaps more importantly a guide who provides popular walking tours of historic neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. He knows both the past and present of his adopted city and has a feel for the people of the era covered here, which he displays through numerous entertaining anecdotes and quotations. This book fills a gap by enlightening many Americans about an important time in their history and is of special interest to Washingtonians. Recommended for public and academic libraries.‘Katherine E. Gillen, Luke AFB Lib., Avondale, AZ
Americans have grown so accustomed to being citizens of a superpower that our collective memory of the burning of Washington during the War of 1812 has been submerged. Pitch, with a solid reputation as a tour leader and local D.C. historian, offers an archivally based, definitive account of the British raid into Chesapeake Bay in 1814, and the successful march on Washington that was a function of American ineffectiveness as much as British competence. After two decades of war with France, British forces had grown adept at "descents": small-scale incursions into hostile territory with the objective of inflicting damage and creating despondency. The decision to burn public buildings and destroy public property was as much political as military, aimed at sending the message that nowhere was there safety from the long arm of the British crown. The British withdrew once the capital lay in ruins, sailing on to the more economically promising targets of Alexandria and Baltimore. The latter city's successful resistance demonstrated that the British were not invincible. Even militia, given competent commanders and sufficient numbers, could blunt the edge of a raiding force unable to replace its own losses. At least as significant, according to Pitch, was the decision not to relocate the capital even temporarily, but to continue governing from the ruins, which conveyed the message that, like its predecessor, this second war of independence would be fought to a finish. In a Britain weary of conflict, that was a powerful incentive to initiate negotiations that within four months produced the Treaty of Ghent and confirmed America's identity as a nation. 14 illustrations. History Book Club selection. (July)
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