A world on fire

What Hacker News says

1. HayvokMay 2022
   The Civil War in America absolutely dominated the British national conversation, especially in the early years of the war. Politicians followed the conflict closely, and there were even several debates in Parliament over British policy toward the conflict.

   Frequently discussed was a line that a lot of Americans would recognize today, of "when should Britain get involved??" because of the destructiveness of the conflict. Prime Minister Palmerston & Foreign Secretary Russell spent a lot of time maneuvering and deflecting calls for Britain to get involved or pick a side.

   A few other bits I found surprising when studying this topic—

     1. Some British MPs were very pro-Confederate, and pushed for recognition of the Confederacy as a real country in Parliament.
     2. British war correspondents were on the ground with both Union and Confederate armies, and sent regular dispatches to British newspapers.
     3. British (and other European) officers regularly volunteered on *both* sides.
     4. It was fashionable for a time in Britain to be pro-Confederate. Confederate propagandist networks *in* Britain brilliantly played down slavery and played up "self-determination".
     5. Britain nearly declared war on the Union (Trent affair), to the point that Royal Navy was just waiting for the go-signal to commence hostilities & Britain sent thousands of additional troops to Canada.
     6. There were *tons* of ironclads already in European fleets, there had just never been a fight between ironclads! Europeans watched the Monitor v. Merrimack battle & adapted their fleets & battle doctrines accordingly.
     7. The British cabinet had a very serious, "can we even win a war against the U.S. anymore?" conversation at the end of the conflict, after witnessing the million-man army of the Union, the Richmond campaign, and growing effectiveness of the U.S. Navy.
     8. Americans credit Seward as a brilliant Secretary of State during the conflict, but in Britain and France he was considered foolish, dangerous, and unpredictable—a lot of the tension between the Union and Europe can be laid at his feet.
     9. Prussian military observers watched how the Union used railroads to move massive numbers of troops & supplies around, and adopted a lot of the Union tactics to absolutely crush the French just a few years later. (Franco-Prussian war of 1870.) Seriously - there were European observers *all over the place*.
   

   Strongly recommend A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman. Brilliant book, and a page-turner.
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2. JustinSeriouslyDec 2010
   Politics and current affairs

   Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. By John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

   The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. By David Remnick

   The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. By Richard McGregor

   Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. By Peter Hessler

   Molotovâs Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History. By Rachel Polonsky

   Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalistâs Frontline Account of Life, Love and War in his Homeland. By Basharat Peer

   The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe. By Peter Godwin

   The Watchers: The Rise of Americaâs Surveillance State. By Shane Harris

   The Rule of Law. By Tom Bingham

   The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Childrenâs Futureâand Why They Should Give it Back By David Willetts

   Biography and memoir

   The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance. By Edmund de Waal

   Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Familyâs Feuds. By Lyndall Gordon

   Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. By Stephen Sondheim

   The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.By Eric Siblin

   History

   Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. By Timothy Snyder

   Why the West RulesâFor Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future. By Ian Morris

   Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. By Frank Dikotter

   Red Plenty: Industry! Progress! Abundance! Inside the Fifties' Soviet Dream. By Francis Spufford

   A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided. By Amanda Foreman

   The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Americaâs Great Migration. By Isabel Wilkerson

   Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth. By Hilary Spurling

   A History of the World in 100 Objects. By Neil MacGregor

   Economics and business

   The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. By Michael Lewis

   More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New Elite. By Sebastian Mallaby

   High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. By Niall Ferguson

   Science and technology

   A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. By Paul Edwards

   Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life. By Rob Carlson

   The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. By Matt Ridley

   Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. By Steven Johnson

   What Technology Wants. By Kevin Kelly

   The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. By Siddhartha Mukherjee

   Culture, society and travel

   Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages. By Guy Deutscher

   Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, With Some Unexpected Results. By Michael Scott Moore

   Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre. By Larry Stempel

   McGilchristâs Greek Islands. By Nigel McGilchrist

   Fiction

   Freedom. By Jonathan Franzen

   To the End of the Land. By David Grossman

   Parrot and Olivier in America. By Peter Carey

   The Unnamed. By Joshua Ferris

   Mr Peanut. By Adam Ross

   The Imperfectionists. By Tom Rachman

   Selected Stories. By William Trevor

   Poetry

   Human chain. By Seamus Heaney

   White Egrets: Poems. By Derek Walcott

   (lets hear it for perl one-liners.)

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