Amanda Foreman

Popular Historian and Author of A World on Fire

A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided

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"The queen of historical biography." - The Independent

Amanda Foreman is a different kind of historian--one who writes sweeping bestsellers that reach, and spark debate amongst, as large an audience as possible. Foreman's not a stuffy academic, buried deep in the stacks; she engages with the wider culture. In her virtuosic new book, A World on Fire, Foreman brings together hundreds of stories--many of them told for the first time--to rescue a lost chapter of the Civil War, and of British and American history. A 900-page opus, Fire has been named as one of the best books of 2011 by The Economist, one of The Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2011, a Bloomberg Top 2011 book, one of The New Yorker's Favorite Books of 2011 and one of The New York Times' Top Ten Books of 2011. "One puts down A World on Fire with a sense of awe," writes The Boston Globe, "Twelve years in the making, and written at an incredible level of detail, A World on Fire is history as a Cecil B. DeMille epic."

A Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, Amanda Foreman is in a unique position for observing the tangled relationship between American and Britain. She is a winner of the 2011 Fletcher Pratt Award for Civil War History and was nominated for the 2011 Jefferson Davis Award for outstanding narrative works on the American Civil War. She holds citizenship in, and has earned degrees from, both countries. Her previous book, the bestselling biography Georgiana, was the basis for an excellent Ralph Fiennes movie. Foreman has also written for diverse magazines, from The New York Review of Books to Vogue, and she's been featured as a Sunday Times Magazine cover story. On stage, Foreman is a spirited and refreshing presence, injecting vivid life into history--and, importantly, appealing to academics and regular audiences alike.

Amanda Foreman Speech Topics

A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided

"A shimmering tapestry." -- The Guardian

"A gripping story." -- New York Review of Books

Amanda Foreman reveals the startling lost history of the Civil War, which was a turning point for America, but also, for the history of U.S.-British relations. With a historian's reach, and a storyteller's command of detail, Foreman condenses years of research and literally hundreds of perspectives into a cycloramic, humanist, and unforgettable talk about an important--and now reclaimed--chapter of the past. The talk is ostensibly about the 50,000 British volunteers on both sides of the Civil War, and it highlights the stories of those who were there, placing each one within and alongside the biographies of their neighbor, their enemy, their army, their government, and ultimately the War itself. The result is an illuminating synthesis of social and political insight. Sometimes, Foreman reminds us, we don't have the whole picture--time erodes bit and pieces, and only with incredible research and dedication can we patch it back together.

VIDEOS

BOOKS

A World on Fire

The Duchess (Originally published as Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire)

ARTICLES

"Divided She Stands" - The Sunday Times Magazine Cover Story on Amanda Foreman

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