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开 本: 32开纸 张: 胶版纸包 装: 平装是否套装: 否国际标准书号ISBN: 9780141040585
No two nations have ever existed on the face of the earth
which could do each other so much good or so much harm’ – President
Buchanan, State of the Nation Address, 1859. “A World on Fire”
tells, with extraordinary sweep, one of the least known great
stories of British and American history. As America descended into
Civil War, British loyalties were torn between support for the
North, which was against slavery, and defending the South, which
portrayed itself as bravely fighting for its independence. Rallying
to their respective causes, thousands of Britons went to America as
soldiers – fighting for both Union and Confederacy – racing ships
through the Northern blockades, and as observers, nurses,
adventurers, guerillas and spies. At the heart of this
international conflict lay a complicated and at times tortuous
relationship between four individuals: Lord Lyons, the painfully
shy British Ambassador in Washington; William Seward, the
blustering US Secretary of State; Charles Francis Adams, the dry
but fiercely patriotic U.S. ambassador in London; and, the restless
and abrasive Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell.
Amanda Foreman’s magnificent book provides a completely fresh
perspective on the first great modern conflict. Weaving together a
vast panoply of people and events, it dramatically brings alive
this extraordinary period on British and American history — Antony
Beevor Ambitiously conceived, impressively researched and
gracefully written, Amanda Foreman has crafted a narrative rich in
detail, anecdote, insight and personalities. It puts a human face –
many human faces – on a brutal conflict remorselessly descending
into an inhuman total war — Brian Jenkins
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