1824: The Arkansas War

October 9, 2006
In Flint's skillful, provocative sequel to his alternative history, 1812: The Rivers of War
(2005), the "Confederacy of the Arkansas" is thriving on the alliance of its Native American and African-American citizens. The independent nation puzzles Northerners but affronts slavery-bound Southerners, who are determined to put these inferior races in their place. Having finagled his way into the White House, a cynical, self-assured Henry Clay launches an invasion of the upstart country, while brawling frontiersman Andrew Jackson and New England intellectual John Quincy Adams become unlikely allies in a new political party based on individual rights. Flint deftly juggles historical details and asks important questions: if America had confronted its institutionalized racism earlier, could our Civil War have been prevented? And can enlightening firsthand experience overcome prejudice?

November 15, 2006
This work of alternative history is a sequel to Flint's "1812: The Rivers of War" (published in hardcover as "The Rivers of War") and continues the story of the new nation founded by New Orleans Creoles, runaway slaves, and the Native Americans "removed" from the Southeastern United States. Crucial to the fate of Arkansas is the attitude of its bigger neighbor to the east. Speaker of the House Henry Clay and most Southerners are outraged by the presumption of their inferiors (and the loss of revenue they represent), while more pragmatic politicians, such as Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, are much less hostile. A young John Brown is an early immigrant to Arkansas. Flint is equally adept handling political machinations and large battle scenes. The historical characters about whom he writes behave in believable ways, and the created ones are equally true to their time and place. Most works of alternative history take as their point of departure the Civil War or World War II, but Flint has shown here that other eras are equally fertile soil for a writer with the imagination and skill to tackle them. Recommended for public libraries. ["The Rivers of War" included a sample chapter of this book.Ed.]Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2006
The sequel to " 1812: The Rivers of War" (2005) is Flint's finest and may become his most controversial book. Ten years after " 1812" 's events, the Cherokees and Patrick Driscoll in Arkansas are attracting a steady stream of African Americans, both fugitive slaves and freedmen, fleeing a deteriorating racial climate. When a filibustering expedition runs into the well-drilled Arkansas army and its Indian allies, it gets a bloody nose. To cement the southern bloc that won him the presidency in the House of Representatives, Henry Clay launches a formal invasion of Arkansas. But rivals Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams form a new party to oppose the war and improve the condition of freedmen, while Arkansas, with the aid of superbly drawn historical figures, such as Sam Houston, and equally compelling fictional ones, such as teenaged African American captain Sheffield Parker, holds its own. Add tragedy in the murder of Houston's wife and comedy in Parker's gentlemanly crush on the daughter of a Kentucky senator and his mulatto common-law wife, and it is hard to think of a more powerful alternate-history novel since Harry Turtledove's " The Guns of the South " (1992). If Flint skates along the thin edge of plausibility, he credibly depicts a U.S. in which, given something like the war of " 1824" , nationalism might indeed have triumphed over sectionalist defense of slavery. A winner from start to finish. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)