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This is an interim review (a more considered and lengthy one will follow) written as I have read 600 plus pages (of 1,000 plus) and want to recommend this triumphant tour de force for the Christmas present trade. Despite there being one or two earlier criticisms from others, my opinion is that 'A World On Fire' is a work or rare genius and, at Amazon's present price, works out at just over a penny per page. Every page is a gem. Get it now!
Added later:
This is a great big book (9 ½ inches by 6 ½ inches by 2 ½ inches weighing about 3 ¾ lbs.) so, if prospective purchasers don't fancy great big books, would they please stop reading this review now.
On the other hand, if prospective purchasers can cope with a great big book, this one (as I have stated in my 'interim review') is a work or rare genius, and I would go so far as to say that, for general historical readers and for 'Civil War' buffs in particular, 'A World On Fire' is a must-have and the book of the decade. It is wonderfully written and a really great read.
One of the most insightful quotations in Amanda Foreman's masterpiece is by the British writer, William Michael Rosetti (brother of the artist Dante Gabriel Rosetti), who said that, during the war, expressions such as "'I am a Northerner," and "I am a Southerner"' were 'as common on Englishmen's lips as "I am a Liberal" or "I am a Conservative."' The partisan nature of the terrible strife was as much a part of the then British psyche and political scene as it was in America.
Though I am British, I have known since I was a child that I was a Southerner and I recall as if it were yesterday the day I first set foot in Virginia. I was in my spiritual home. It just felt right. I have never felt the need nor the desire to change my attitude and preference.
My guess is that the author is a Northerner in sympathy, but I absolve her of all partisan feelings as she has done her best to present the respective Northern and Southern causes in a fair light. Moreover, she shows an exceptional understanding of the sympathies of both British and American people, not only those who participated but also those who were interested but powerless bystanders like the hundreds of thousands of cotton workers thrown out of work by what was going on over the ocean.
It has been suggested that Ms. Foreman's work should have been better edited. Editing implies correction or cutting. I see no need for correction - other than the three typographical errors that I twigged - and certainly no need for cutting, for, if anything, the book leaves much out and isn't long enough. I could have coped with another 1,000 pages at least.
I was proud to read of distant relatives of both my wife and myself who had played parts on both sides (North and South) and on both sides of the ocean. Abraham Lincoln and William Henry Seward are studied thoroughly and it is again clear to me that Seward, as a drunk, was no credit to the State Department whilst Lincoln can never be absolved from the prime charge of the people of the South, namely, that he raised a great army to invade their states. That army burned houses and destroyed farms wherever it went, right from the start. Poor Virginia, indeed. Incidentally, the book's title is probably derived from the words of the drunken and irresponsible Seward - 'We will wrap the whole world in flames' (page 189).
An unexpected (to me) Southern hero was the British war artist and correspondent Frank Vizetelly (1830 - 1883), whose drawings graced the pages of the Illustrated London News. I had seen some of them before but I had not known what an important part this man had played, being on hand almost throughout and at the end of President Davis's doomed leadership of the equally doomed Confederate States. The book, already a magnum opus, is made better still by the inclusion of much of Mr Vizetelly's marvellous work.
Hundreds of books have been written about the American 'Civil War' (or 'War of Northern Aggression' or 'War for Southern Independence') and all bar a few describe the bitter divisions between peoples of similar blood and the almost indescribable suffering, especially of those in the invaded South. This superlative and stupendous tome succeeds as well as any other because it includes so many first-hand (and, in some cases, new) accounts of individual participants and on-the-spot observers.
The book's greatest strength - and its primary purpose - is its success in showing how important was the attitude of Great Britain and the British people. There were many occasions when British intervention could (and should?) have ensured the ending of the slaughter and there were more occasions than I knew of when Great Britain and the Lincoln regime might have found themselves at war. The then future of Canada was at stake, as was the governance of Mexico, for which France yearned.
Aside from Frank Vizetelly and many others who are mentioned and quoted at length, two more Southern heroes were Swiss-born Henry Hotze (1833 - 1887), a master of propaganda who worked with my Cambridgeshire-born cousin, John George Witt (1836 - 1906), and James Dunwoody Bulloch (1823 - 1901), uncle of Teddy Roosevelt and one of the Confederacy's principal agents in Great Britain. I have read of both previously, thanks to Amazon. Intriguingly, one of the Amazon critics of 'A World On Fire' is one James Bulloch. If the latter Mr Bulloch is a relative of the former Mr Bulloch, I forgive his criticisms and defer to his knowledge. If he is not, I hope that potential purchasers will give more weight to my remarks and buy this magnificent book that is enormously impressive in both scale and scope.
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not just a war between brothers but also between cousins
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2015
In 2012, I had the chance to visit the Gettysburg battlefield and there near the Eternal Light Peace memorial are two confederate artillery pieces; British Armstrong Whitworth breech loading 3pdr with rifled barrels. Possibly, for that time, the most technically advanced artillery pieces on the battlefield. This book goes a long way to explaining how they got there.On the face of it the American civil war had very little to do with us Brits and as such we only tend to come across it via American sources such as TV and the movies where understandably the view point in focused inwardly. As this book explains the truth is that we were almost as much involved as America and the civil war had a much wider international dimension. In fact had we played it differently the South would have been able to go its own way. Be warned this is not a light read, it needs, and repays, your full attention. It also outlines the troubled relationship between the USA and Britain during most of the 19th century. Basically we were the bogie man and every ill that befell the USA leading up to the start of the civil war was laid at the feet of Britain by US politicians. In fact, the book points out that the Republican party's great plan to avoid the south from seeking independence was to invade Canada and provoke a war with Britain. The book also highlights how slavery and cotton bound our two nations. Victorian Britain was dedicated to wiping out the slave trade yet approximately 5 million people (Lancashire's dark satanic mills) depended on the south's slave economy cotton. British industry wasn't above selling arms to the south either. The confederate navy's best warships were all built in British shipyards and their soldiers often carried British weapons, as did many in the Northern army. In fact many officers and men on both sides were also British but it was on the political front where Britain had the most influence. Packed with detail, the book shines a light onto a part of British history very few of us probably know much about. Well worth it if you have any interest in this period.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2015
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