Amanda Foreman. (2011). A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War. Random House Publishing Group.

Amanda Foreman. 2011. A World On Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War. Random House Publishing Group.

Amanda Foreman, A World On Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War. Random House Publishing Group, 2011.

Amanda Foreman. A World On Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War. Random House Publishing Group, 2011.

OverDrive Product Record

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0111-1/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0111-1/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0111-1/650/338/E0/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0111-1/650/338/E0/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780679603979
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 54522
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780679603979
     2. • type: ASIN
        • value: B004J4WN2G
     3. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 54522
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780679603979
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 54522
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 037550494X

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Amanda Foreman

title

A World on Fire

dateAdded

2011-12-01T14:01:45.12-05:00

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=514464
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

sortTitle

World on Fire Britains Crucial Role in the American Civil War

crossRefId

514464

subtitle

Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

id

650338e0-24a4-48d2-9191-ec97045d3216

starRating

3.9

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: AWorldonFire_9780679603979_514464
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 31742951
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780679603979
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 54522
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 6/28/2011
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/0111-1/650/338/E0/WorldonFireBritiansCrucialRoleintheAm9780679603979.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: AWorldonFire_514464
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 54522
     2. • type: ASIN
        • value: B004J4WN2G
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 6/28/2011
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/0111-1/650/338/E0/WorldonFireBritiansCrucialRoleintheAm9780679603979.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: AWorldonFire_9780679603979_514464
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780679603979
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 54522
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 6/28/2011
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/0111-1/650/338/E0/WorldonFireBritiansCrucialRoleintheAm9780679603979.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216&.epub-sample.overdrive.com

keywords

1. • value: international relations
2. • value: us history
3. • value: War
4. • value: Historical
5. • value: non fiction
6. • value: culture
7. • value: society
8. • value: britain
9. • value: 19th Century
10. • value: american history
11. • value: Social Studies
12. • value: American Civil War
13. • value: Civil War
14. • value: Social History
15. • value: 19th century history
16. • value: England
17. • value: Great Britain
18. • value: British History
19. • value: Military History
20. • value: uk
21. • value: History
22. • value: historic
23. • value: cultural history
24. • value: nonfiction books
25. • value: civil wa
26. • value: civil war books
27. • value: r nonfiction
28. • value: history books
29. • value: History book
30. • value: books about history
31. • value: historical non fiction
32. • value: books about history for adults
33. • value: historical non fiction books
34. • value: non fiction history books

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Foreman, Amanda
   • bioText: Amanda Foreman is a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. She won the Whitbread Prize for Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, which was adapted for the screen as The Duchess. Educated as an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College and with master’s and doctorate degrees in history from Oxford University, she is now married with five children and lives in New York.
   • name: Amanda Foreman

imprint

Random House

publishDate

2011-06-28T00:00:00-04:00

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

A World on Fire

fullDescription

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
10 BEST BOOKS • THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • 2011
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post • The New Yorker • Chicago Tribune • The Economist • Nancy Pearl, NPR • Bloomberg.com • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly
 
In this brilliant narrative, Amanda Foreman tells the fascinating story of the American Civil War—and the major role played by Britain and its citizens in that epic struggle. Between 1861 and 1865, thousands of British citizens volunteered for service on both sides of the Civil War. From the first cannon blasts on Fort Sumter to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, they served as officers and infantrymen, sailors and nurses, blockade runners and spies. Through personal letters, diaries, and journals, Foreman introduces characters both humble and grand, while crafting a panoramic yet intimate view of the war on the front lines, in the prison camps, and in the great cities of both the Union and the Confederacy. In the drawing rooms of London and the offices of Washington, on muddy fields and aboard packed ships, Foreman reveals the decisions made, the beliefs held and contested, and the personal triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately led to the reunification of America.
 
“Engrossing . . . a sprawling drama.”—The Washington Post
 
“Eye-opening . . . immensely ambitious and immensely accomplished.”—The New Yorker
 
WINNER OF THE FLETCHER PRATT AWARD FOR CIVIL WAR HISTORY

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Michael Burlingame, The Wall Street Journal
   • content: "Ms. Foreman...is such an engaging writer that readers may find this 958-page volume too short."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The New York Times Book Review
   • content: "Extraordinary cast....Thoroughly researched and well written...Remarkable."
3. • premium: False
   • source: The Boston Globe
   • content: "One puts down A World on Fire with a sense of awe. Foreman's skills as historian and writer are formidable."
4. • premium: False
   • source: The Washington Post
   • content: "Foreman's descriptive gifts show especially well in bringing vividly to life the political and diplomatic worlds of Washington and London...A brief review can only hint at the expansive scope, rich detail and pulsing energy of A World on Fire."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Newsweek
   • content: "[A] magisterial history."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Christian Science Monitor
   • content: "So expansive in its scope, and so well written...to call it a masterpiece somehow doesn't seem to do it justice."
7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from April 11, 2011
     In a dramatic change of pace, Foreman, author of the bestselling Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, fulfills her goal of capturing "the many relationships that together formed the British-American experience during the Civil War," from diplomatic maneuvers on both sides of the Atlantic to the sagas of British volunteers in the Union and Confederate armies. Weaving eyewitness accounts into an overview of the war's progress is tricky, particularly since Foreman includes vivid personality sketches of a very large cast of characters. But her massive text slowly comes into focus as we get to know such British participants as Illustrated London News correspondent Frank Vizetelly, whose wartime drawings are the book's visual highlight, and feisty Americans abroad, like Confederate propagandist Henry Hotze, whose masterful manipulation of the English press helped win the South sympathizers in a country where detestation of slavery was nearly universal. The North, meanwhile, struggled to repair relations after the 1861 seizure of two Confederate agents from a British ship. Whether Britain's role in the Civil War was "crucial" remains debatable, but Foreman amply offers a new perspective on the war in an elegantly written work of old-fashioned narrative history. 32 pages of b&w photos; photos throughout; maps.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     May 15, 2011
     

     Exhaustive record of Britain's growing alarm at the escalating American Civil War and outright sympathy and shelter for the Confederacy.

     The Civil War exacerbated old grievances still rankling between the United States and England, which held the moral high ground on slavery and disdained American "exceptionalism." Whitbread Prize–winning historian Foreman (Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, 1999) embraces a vast enterprise, from the buildup to war to the aftermath, and does not fail to amplify in a leisurely narrative fashion all facets of the complicated British and American relationship, including diplomatic, political and military. The author also features accounts by countless other observers, pro-Confederate and pro-Union. English textile mills relied on Southern cotton, while the South leaned on British finance to manage its debt crisis; with the Union blockade of Confederate ports from April 1860 onward, the U.S. and England approached war with each other. Public opinion ran hot or cold, depending on dispatches by journalists such as William Howard Russell for The Times and artistic renderings by Frank Vizetelly (he was present during Jefferson Davis' last days as a fugitive). After President Lincoln's assassination, the British press underwent a thorough self-castigation for its pro-Southern coverage. With General Lee's victory at Bull Run, and subsequent march north, the Confederacy anticipated the British gesture of Southern Recognition. Despite avowed British neutrality, the North widely believed that Britain was supporting the Confederacy's blockade-running efforts. Yet the Southern defeat at Antietam began to reveal great holes in Lee's army, and the British could never entirely shake their abhorrence to slavery—leaving the South to its "utter isolation." Foreman's dense narrative ably—but lengthily—reveals the passions that this war aroused overseas.

     A staggering work of research, occasionally toilsome to read.

      

     (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     January 1, 2011
     

     Featured in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/10--it was even my pick!--this book has been bumped from March to June 2011. The best-selling Foreman here considers Britain's contribution to America's Civil War. With a seven-city tour.

     Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      May 1, 2011
      Inspecting British influence on the Civil War, Foreman delves into the wartime activities of dozens of British officials and subjects, ranging from the foreign secretary and the ambassador to America to volunteers in both Union and Confederate armies. Her illustrative matter, almost entirely reproduced from pro-Southern British publications, underscores the support the Confederacy found in England. That sympathys potential conversion into official recognitionthe Norths nightmareimpels Foremans detailed accounts of diplomatic relations between Washington and London. The character of Foremans narrative emerges not in dry description of a d'marche but much more vividly from sharp realization of the personalities and emotions of American and British diplomats reacting to events provoked by Confederate armaments purchases and campaigns for British and French recognition of independence. Those who picked up a rifle instead of a pen also come to life in Foremans prose and maps showing where on Civil War battlefields these British soldiers and illustrators found themselves. Formidable researcher and lucid writer, Foreman dispels the obscurity of a critical aspect of the Civil War.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      June 1, 2011
      

      Whitbread Prize winner Foreman (visiting research fellow, Queen Mary, Univ. of London; Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire) weighs in with a big book rich in description and strong in narrative, with a large cast of characters that includes British nobles and American statesmen jockeying for power, British journalists reporting the war, and Englishmen and Irishmen fighting, respectively, with the Union and Confederate armies in what they regarded as noble causes. Foreman's special strength is tracking the social relationships that bound together, or estranged, the movers and shakers in London and Washington, with keen insights on the political maneuverings that kept England out of the war. If her minibiographies sometimes overwhelm the narrative and her battle accounts distract in their detail, her deftly drawn vignettes remind readers that personal concerns and personalities informed policy as much as national identity and interest. VERDICT The result is a very good read and a grand panorama of the war on land and sea, in the press, and in drawing rooms and public assemblies on both sides of the Atlantic. Highly recommended for all students of the Civil War, buffs and scholars alike, and anyone wanting to understand the complicated world of Anglo-American relations. [See Prepub Alert, 11/29/10.]--Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia

      Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

12. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      May 15, 2011
      

      Exhaustive record of Britain's growing alarm at the escalating American Civil War and outright sympathy and shelter for the Confederacy.

      The Civil War exacerbated old grievances still rankling between the United States and England, which held the moral high ground on slavery and disdained American "exceptionalism." Whitbread Prize-winning historian Foreman (Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, 1999) embraces a vast enterprise, from the buildup to war to the aftermath, and does not fail to amplify in a leisurely narrative fashion all facets of the complicated British and American relationship, including diplomatic, political and military. The author also features accounts by countless other observers, pro-Confederate and pro-Union. English textile mills relied on Southern cotton, while the South leaned on British finance to manage its debt crisis; with the Union blockade of Confederate ports from April 1860 onward, the U.S. and England approached war with each other. Public opinion ran hot or cold, depending on dispatches by journalists such as William Howard Russell for The Times and artistic renderings by Frank Vizetelly (he was present during Jefferson Davis' last days as a fugitive). After President Lincoln's assassination, the British press underwent a thorough self-castigation for its pro-Southern coverage. With General Lee's victory at Bull Run, and subsequent march north, the Confederacy anticipated the British gesture of Southern Recognition. Despite avowed British neutrality, the North widely believed that Britain was supporting the Confederacy's blockade-running efforts. Yet the Southern defeat at Antietam began to reveal great holes in Lee's army, and the British could never entirely shake their abhorrence to slavery--leaving the South to its "utter isolation." Foreman's dense narrative ably--but lengthily--reveals the passions that this war aroused overseas.

      A staggering work of research, occasionally toilsome to read.

      (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

popularity

333

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/650338e0-24a4-48d2-9191-ec97045d3216/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

650338e0-24a4-48d2-9191-ec97045d3216

starRating

3.9

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0111-1/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0111-1/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0111-1/650/338/E0/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0111-1/650/338/E0/{650338E0-24A4-48D2-9191-EC97045D3216}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: History
2. • value: Nonfiction

publishDateText

06/28/2011

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9780375504945

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
10 BEST BOOKS • THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • 2011
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post • The New Yorker • Chicago Tribune • The Economist • Nancy Pearl, NPR • Bloomberg.com • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly
 
In this brilliant narrative, Amanda Foreman tells the fascinating story of the American Civil War—and the major role played by Britain and its citizens in that epic struggle. Between 1861 and 1865, thousands of British citizens volunteered for service on both sides of the Civil War. From the first cannon blasts on Fort Sumter to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, they served as officers and infantrymen, sailors and nurses, blockade runners and spies. Through personal letters, diaries, and journals, Foreman introduces characters both humble and grand, while crafting a...

sortTitle

World on Fire Britains Crucial Role in the American Civil War

crossRefId

514464

awards

1. • source: The National Book Critics Circle
   • value: National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
2. • source: The New York Times
   • value: 10 Best Books of 2011

subtitle

Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

publisher

Random House Publishing Group

bisacCodes

1. • code: HIS015000
   • description: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General
2. • code: HIS036040
   • description: History / United States / 19th Century
3. • code: HIS036050
   • description: History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)