Review: Foreman, A World on Fire (2010)

[truepenny]

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

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is SO GOOD.

I hoped it would be interesting, but it is both fascinating and beautifully written. Foreman discusses Britain's role from the governmental to the personal level, tracking the careers of several people, mostly diplomats and politicians British, Federal, and Confederate and British volunteers with the Union or Confederate Army---of which there were way more than you would think---but also people like Rose Greenhow and Belle Boyd. Foreman writes about diplomats and privates with the same care and focus and has done a wonderful job of ferreting out letters and memoirs, both of the people she is following and of the people they interacted with. She also does a really excellent job of guiding her readers through the Civil War. I never felt lost or confused, and my attention did not flag through the whole 800 page* book

Highly recommended and obviously five stars.

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*not counting endnotes and the glossary which, as with so many glossaries, would have been more helpful if I'd known about it on page 1, instead of on page 917



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