A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman

Written by Amanda Foreman
Read by Robertson Dean
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: June 28, 2011
Duration: 32:45:02

The fascinating story of the American Civil War and the major role played by Britain and its citizens in that epic struggle.

Even before the first rumblings of secession shook the halls of Congress, British involvement in the coming schism was inevitable. Britain was dependent on the South for cotton, and in turn the Confederacy relied almost exclusively on Britain for guns, bullets, and ships. The Union sought to block any diplomacy between the two and consistently teetered on the brink of war with Britain. For four years the complex web of relationships between the countries led to defeats and victories both minute and history making. In A World on Fire, Amanda Foreman examines the fraught relations from multiple angles while she introduces characters both humble and grand, bringing them to vivid life over the course of her sweeping and brilliant narrative.

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 has woven together their experiences to form 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. Through the eyes of these brave volunteers we see the details of the struggle for life and the great and powerful forces that threatened to demolish a nation.

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.

“Amanda Foreman’s account of the uneasy relationship between the United States and Great Britain before and during the Civil War is exhaustive but far from exhausting, detailed without being tedious. It takes a solid reader to carry off a work that runs this long, and Robertson Dean is up to the task. He eschews histrionics, which would become tiresome quickly, but his tone has the right note of gravity. He gives just a hint of a British accent to directly quoted material by Englishmen. He also changes his pitch slightly–but without a cartoonish quality–when quoting women. His easy tone carries listeners along, even through the potentially tedious discussions of British Foreign Office politics.” — AudioFile