Amanda Foreman Reviews

A World on Fire

Reviews

2012

Civil War Notebook - 1 August 2012
In the Review Queue: A World on Fire (PDF)
By Jim Miller
New York History - 28 July 2012
A World on Fire (PDF)
By Editorial Staff
Spectrum Culture - 14 June 2012
A World on Fire: By Amanda Foreman (PDF)
By David Harris

2011

Commentary Magazine - November 2011
The War Came, and So Did the British (PDF)
By Frederic Raphael
The New Republic - 14 September 2011
The Trouble with Neutrality (PDF)
By Maya Jasanoff
Foreign Affairs - September/October 2011
A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War (PDF)
By Walter Russell Mead
Cleveland.com - 21 August 2011
Amanda Foreman's 'A World on Fire' ignites the British stakes in the U.S. Civil War (PDF)
By Alan Cate
The Christian Science Monitor - 4 August 2011
A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War, by Amanda Foreman (PDF)
By Carmela Ciuraru
The New Yorker - 1 August 2011
Over There (PDF)
By Hendrik Hertzberg
STLtoday.com - 31 July 2011
Great Britain's role in US Civil War is explored (PDF)
By Myron A Marty
The Washington Independent Review of Books - 20 July 2011
A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in America's Civil War (PDF)
By Brian Odom
al.com - 17 July 2011
'World on Fire': British eyes on the United States' Civil War (PDF)
By John Sledge
The New York Review of Books - 14 July 2011
What Drove the Terrible War? (PDF)
By James M. McPherson
Star-Ledger - 10 July 2011
'A World on Fire' Highlights Neglected Story of the Civil War (PDF)
The Washington Post - 1 July 2011
‘A World on Fire,’ by Amanda Foreman, on British involvement in the American Civil War. (PDF)
By Gary W. Gallagher
Civil War Book Review - Summer 2011
A Deeper Examination of Britain and the American Civil War (PDF)
Wilson Quarterly - Summer 2011
Battle Over Britain (PDF)
By Don. H. Doyle
The New York Times Book Review - 30 June 2011
How the British Nearly Supported the Confederacy
By Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Bloomberg - 28 June 2011
U.S. Civil War found Britons Plotting, Fighting, Changing Uniforms (PDF)
By Joe Mysak
Newsweek - 26 June 2011
Union Jacked (PDF)
The Wall Street Journal - 25 June 2011
When Cotton Wasn't King (PDF)
By Michael Burlingame
The Washington Times - 20 June 2011
When Britain Sided with the South (PDF)
By Joseph C. Goulden
The Independent - 19 June 2011
History Unfolds like a Cavalry Charge (PDF)
By David Evans
Boston Globe - 19 June 2011
North and South - With Britain Watching (PDF)
By Matthew Price
University of Oxford Alumni Events - 2 June 2011
Amanda Foreman at Blackwell's (PDF)
By Beth Tibble
Elle - June 2011
Between the Lines (PDF)
By Nojan Aminosharei
London Review of Books - 19 May 2011
'Divinely Ordained' (PDF)
By Jackson Lears
Kirkus Reviews - 15 May 2011
A WORLD ON FIRE Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War
By Amanda Foreman (Author)
Booklist - 1 May 2011
A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (PDF)
By Gilbert Taylor
Publishers Weekly - 11 April 2011
A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (PDF)
The Tablet - 10 February 2011
Bystander to a vile conflict (PDF)
By Jonathan Wright
BBC History Magazine - February 2011
Atlantic Drama (PDF)
By Richard Carwardine
"Widely researched, artfully constructed, compellingly written, and colourfully textured, it is an epic realization of an epic history."
Tribune Magazine - 27 January 2011
Venture into violence – a campaign to free the slaves or the right ... (PDF)
By Geoffrey Goodman
"The deep message emerging from Amanda Foreman's magnum opus is that the brutal uprising a century and a half ago provides a clue to the mystique at the heart of the American psyche . . ."
History Today - 19 January 2011
A World on Fire (PDF)
By Adam I.P. Smith
"Amanda Foreman's magnificent new book . . . resembles nothing so much as War and Peace."

2010

The Indepedent - 10 December 2010
A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided, By AmandaForeman (PDF)
By Piers Brendon
The American Civil War (1861-65) was the bloodiest conflict in the country'shistory. All told it cost the lives of 620,000 combatants, out of a populationof 31 million
The Times Literary Supplement - 10 December 2010
Glory's glittering lies (PDF)
By Mark Bostridge
"A World on Fire . . . is . . . remarkable above all for putting a human face on one of the most brutal conflicts in history."
The Financial Times - 10 December 2010
A World on Fire (PDF)
By Stephen Graubard
"Foreman treats the Civil War as others have treated the Russian Revolution, recognizing that the foreign reaction to such cosmic happenings gives them a significance that can never be neglected."

Literary Review - December 2010
LYONS' SHARE (PDF)
By Saul David
"A World on Fire . . . is nothing less than a tour de force."
Telegraph - 30 November 2010
World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided by Amanda Foreaman (PDF)
By Dominic Sandbrook
". . . There is something undeniably impressive about an author with the courage to attempt something so ambitious, a global history of a seismic conflict, spanning two continents and encompassing a massive cast of characters."
Guardian - 27 November 2010
A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided by Amanda Foreman (PDF)
By Jay Parini
"One can hardly overestimate the brilliance of Foreman's conception . . . which offers readers a fresh view of this convulsive, devastating war."
Daily Mail - 25 November 2010
How brave Britons united the States (PDF)
By Christopher Hudson
"If Amanda Foreman . . . set out to enhance her academic reputation, she has succeeded."
The Economist - 11 November 2010
Into the Flames (PDF)
"The scale of Ms. Foreman's book is epic."
The Times - 8 November 2010
A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided by Amanda Foreman
By Joanna Bourke
"Foreman's archive-rich evocation of the civil war is an eloquent testimony to her powers as an historian and storyteller."
The Spectator - 6 November 2010
Far from Idealism (PDF)
By Sam Leith
". . . If you've an appetite for serious history in widescreen you'll be in hog-heaven."
The Express - 5 November 2010
Review: A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided by Amanda Foreman (PDF)
By Christopher Silvester
"A World on Fire is a staggering achievement."
The Mail on Sunday - November 2010
A Real-Life Gone With The Wind
By Antonia Fraser
". . . Here is an iridescent book; vivid like a rainbow but rather more substantial."
The Sunday Telegraph - 31 October 2010
A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided by Amanda Foreman: review (PDF)
By Raymond Seitz
"In transatlantic relations, things always look different and more interesting when viewed from mid-ocean, and it is from this perspective that Foreman has presented her fine work."

Purchase A World on Fire:

The Duchess and Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

2000

The New York Times - 23 January 2000 (PDF)
Party Girl
By Patricia T. O'Conner
Wall Street Journal - January 2000
"The People`s Duchess"
By Ned Crabb
"Ms. Foreman's intelligent insights on domestic, social and political aspects of this time and her judicious psychological interpretation of her subject's behavior flow smoothly, and with no pontificating, into the story."
The New Yorker - 17 January 2000 (PDF)
The High Life: Sex and Gambling in Eighteenth Century England
By Francine du Plessix Gray
Vogue - January 2000
"Amanda Foreman takes on the Duchess of Devonshire"
By Jean Nathan
"Foreman . . . deploys her full energy and impressive command of the material to telling the story of Georgiana, and by the end we are exactly where she wants us: hopelessly enthralled."

1998

The Sunday Times - 18 May 1998
Hostess with the mostest
By Roy Strong
"Outstanding . . . a young biographer fully in control of her sources, and with an easy and elegant writing style."
The Daily Telegraph - May 1998
Legendarily extravagant (PDF)
By Philip Ziegler
"This is an accomplished and well-written biography; remarkably mature for a first effort; diligently researched and entertainingly presented. Amanda Foreman is a writer to watch and one from whom much can be expected."
The Evening Standard - Unknown
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
By Roy Porter
"Georgiana is a capital biography and a splendid debut for Ms. Foreman."

Purchase Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire:

Purchase the book, rereleased as The Duchess:

Other Books

What Might Have Been: Imaginary History from Twelve Leading Historians
By Andrew Roberts
The Wall Street Journal - 5 April 2006
A Shot Heard Round the World
By Christopher Hill
"Ms. Jardine writes with fluid precision and offers many dashes of historical color. Her description of the ingeniously complex firing mechanism of the wheel-lock pistol is by itself worth the price of the book."
Publisher's Weekly - 7 February 2006
"[Jardine's] scholarship is broad, as she dissects William's lasting reputation for tolerance as a product of the writings of his supporters and traces the technology, uses and symbolism of the wheel-lock pistol used to kill him."
The Independent - 18 August 2005
The Awful End of Prince William the Silent by Lisa Jardine
By Frank McLynn
"Ingenious . . . Jardine's book is a refreshing foray into an area often neglected by historians . . ."
The Observer - 5 June 2005
Number One with a Bullet
By Peter Preston
"an engrossing, spritely read."
The Spectator - 14 May 2005
Murder Made Easy
By Robert Stewart
"There is much that is good in [The Awful End of Prince William the Silent ], about new handguns, their use in crime and warfare, and their role as fashionable accessories (notably in portraiture) of the rich and proud; about the 'spinning' ride in Renaissance pamphlet wars; and about the age's wantonly cruel methods of torture and execution."
Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction
By Martin Gilbert