The authors of this book believe that the War of 1812 was an important event in North American history with lasting consequences for Canadians, Americans, and the First Nations. This is the latest guidebook published by the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies that uses modern satellite images, archival records, paintings, and contemporary photographs to offer enough information to allow for a basic understanding of what happened and why it happened that way. This book is organized into two parts. First, an historical section that seeks to place events in their strategic, operational, and human context. Second, there is a tour section that is designed to introduce and guide readers to key locations of war and memory, and offer an explanation of the fluid memory that has evolved over the last 200 years. The War of 1812 has been forgotten, re-imagined, and invented anew many times and the itineraries of the guide illustrate that ever-changing process of commemoration.