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.
關於作者:
Amanda Foreman is the author of the international bestseller
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire 1999 which has been translated
into thirteen languages and won the Whitbread Prize for Biography.
She is currently a research fellow at Queen Mary, University of
London. She is married with five children.