I'm not an expert but I can give you the layman's version from Six Frigates. (This is more concerned with the Naval history and events that lead to the conflict.)

The budding US military needed competent sailors because of continued conflict with the Barbary Coast states. As a result some of the sailors were from other countries (which was common in all navies at the time) and many of them were either current or former citizens of the British Empire.

At the same time the English were in a conflict with France and desperately needed more men for the Royal Navy. As a result they began impressing former British sailors from ships that didn't belong to them and specifically that were sailing under the colors of the United States. As you can imagine, with the Revolutionary War still very much in the common mind, this didn't sit well with the fledgling nation.

In 1807 there was the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, an international incident involving the desertion and recovery of sailors from British ships. The commander of the Leopard (Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys) unexpectedly opened fire on the Chesapeake after the Chesapeake refused to heave to to allow a search for deserters.

This nearly started a war by itself but lead to growing dissatisfaction in the United States with the way that the British (and the Royal Navy in particular) disregarded the sovereignty of the US.

Six Frigates also maintains that the British ambassador to the United States and the American president (James Madison) took an immediate disliking to each other which further disrupted diplomatic relations.

This breakdown of communications and the refusal of the American Congress and British Parliament to back down eventually led to the war.

At the time, too, the United States had the eponymous six frigates (Constitution, Chesapeake, Constellation, United States, Congress, and President) which gave them a fair amount of strength in the north Atlantic and they held a strategic advantage over the Royal Naval forces who were engaged with the French Navy. This strength contributed to the idea that the Americans should not back down. (The six frigates were also of a newer heavier variety which led to early victories in the war that deeply disturbed and embarrassed the Admiralty.)

The English (according to Six Frigates) wouldn't back down because they win at everything naval and all foreigners are inferior.

It looks, to me, like a slow-motion train wreck.