A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War
Thursday, July 14, 2011

Time: 6:00 PM-7:00 PM

Place: Lecture Hall

Amanda Foreman, author of the international best seller Georgiana,
Duchess of Devonshire, which won the Whitbread Prize for Best Biography,
will discuss and sign A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the
American Civil War. The book tells one of the least-known great stories
of British and American history uncovering the pivotal and major role
played by Britain and its citizens during the war. Foreman provides
fresh accounts of Civil War battles and shows how the war spread to
Britain and was fought just as continuously there as it was in America.

The publication of A World on Fire coincides with a date famous in naval
history-the battle between the USS Kearsarge and the CSS Alabama in the
English Channel. 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 U.S. secretary of state; Charles Francis Adams
(grandson of John Adams and the son of John Quincy Adams), the dry but
fiercely patriotic U.S. ambassador in London; and the restless and
abrasive foreign secretary, Lord John Russell. For all their
well-meaning efforts, and sometimes as a result of them, America and
Britain came within a whisker of declaring war on each other twice in
four years. 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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tameka B. Hobbs

Program and Education Manager

Department of Educational Services

Public Services and Outreach Division

Library of Virginia

800 E. Broad Street

Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000

804.371.2126 - office

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