Forge of Empires: Three Revolutionary Statesmen and the World They Made, 1861-1871In the space of a single decade, three leaders liberated tens of millions of souls, remade their own vast countries, and altered forever the forms of national power:
The three statesmen forged the empires that would dominate the twentieth century through two world wars, the Cold War, and beyond. Each of the three was a revolutionary, yet each consolidated a nation that differed profoundly from the others in its conceptions of liberty, power, and human destiny. Michael Knox Beran's Forge of Empires brilliantly entwines the stories of the three epochal transformations and their fateful legacies. Telling the stories from the point of view of those who participated in the momentous events -- among them Walt Whitman and Friedrich Nietzsche, Mary Chesnut and Leo Tolstoy, Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie -- Beran weaves a rich tapestry of high drama and human pathos. Great events often turned on the decisions of a few lone souls, and each of the three statesmen faced moments of painful doubt or denial as well as significant decisions that would redefine their nations. With its vivid narrative and memorable portraiture, Forge of Empires sheds new light on a question of perennial importance: How are free states made, and how are they unmade? In the same decade that saw freedom's victories, one of the trinity of liberators revealed himself as an enemy to the free state, and another lost heart. What Lincoln called the "germ" of freedom, which was "to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind," came close to being annihilated in a world crisis that pitted the free state against new philosophies of terror and coercion. Forge of Empires is a masterly story of one of history's most significant decades. |
From inside the book
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Page 20
... tion in Germany was not , at the beginning of 1861 , easy to perceive . The true extent of German power was obscured by the innumerable divisions of the German polity . Observers had , since the time of Tacitus , been astonished by the ...
... tion in Germany was not , at the beginning of 1861 , easy to perceive . The true extent of German power was obscured by the innumerable divisions of the German polity . Observers had , since the time of Tacitus , been astonished by the ...
Page 23
... tion : they believed that slavery should be made unlawful in all the nation's territory . " Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery , ” Abraham Lincoln , the leader of the Republicans , wrote in December 1860 ...
... tion : they believed that slavery should be made unlawful in all the nation's territory . " Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery , ” Abraham Lincoln , the leader of the Republicans , wrote in December 1860 ...
Page 31
... tion of whether a policy of freedom or a policy of coercion was most likely to exalt the greatness of Russia interested him hardly at all . But that which he lacked in speculative intelligence was supplied by his lieu- tenant , Nicholas ...
... tion of whether a policy of freedom or a policy of coercion was most likely to exalt the greatness of Russia interested him hardly at all . But that which he lacked in speculative intelligence was supplied by his lieu- tenant , Nicholas ...
Page 32
... tion . He nicknamed Milyutin " Egeria , " the nymph - goddess who , it was believed by the ancient Romans , had loved King Numa , and inspired his wise regulations . Could Egeria overcome the resistance of Prince Orlov ? Perhaps— but ...
... tion . He nicknamed Milyutin " Egeria , " the nymph - goddess who , it was believed by the ancient Romans , had loved King Numa , and inspired his wise regulations . Could Egeria overcome the resistance of Prince Orlov ? Perhaps— but ...
Page 33
... tion , to the spiritual warmth of the Orthodox Church . In the elabora- tions of its liturgy and the fragrancy of its ritual she found an imperfect substitute for all that she had been denied by a wandering husband . She was a genuinely ...
... tion , to the spiritual warmth of the Orthodox Church . In the elabora- tions of its liturgy and the fragrancy of its ritual she found an imperfect substitute for all that she had been denied by a wandering husband . She was a genuinely ...
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Abraham Lincoln Alexander Alexander II Alexander's American April army August Austria battle Bazaine Benedetti Berlin Bismarck Civil command Confederate diplomat Emancipation Emancipation Proclamation Emperor Empire Empress England Eugénie father France free-state freedom French Gedanken German Gesammelten Werke Gladstone Henry History Ibid imperial James Chesnut John Lothrop Motley July Kate Chase Katya King knew Kropotkin liberal London Lord Lord Augustus Loftus Louis-Napoleon Ludwig March marck Mary Chesnut McClellan MCCW military Minister Moltke Motley to Seward Napoleon Napoleon III nation never New-York Nicholas Nietzsche Orlov Palmerston Paris peasants political President Prince Prussian reform régime revolution revolutionary Richmond romantic Russia Saint Petersburg SD NARA M44/ROLL SD NARA T157/ROLL Senate slavery slaves soldiers South Southern thought tion told Tolstoy took trans troops Tsar Tsar's Tuileries Union University Press Wagner Washington Whitman wife Wilhelm William wrote Yasnaya Polyana York young
Popular passages
Page 390 - This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men...
Page 224 - In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose.
Page 384 - In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill.
Page 231 - Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
Page 106 - I beg to assure you that I have never written you or spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as, in my most anxious judgment, I consistently can. But you must act.
Page 139 - I have not so much of the confidence of the people as I had some time since, I do not know that, all things considered, any other person has more; and, however this may be, there is no way in which I can have any other man put where I am. I am here. I must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take.
Page 146 - Like the patriarchs of old, our men live all in one house with their wives and their concubines; and the mulattoes one sees in every family partly resemble the white children.
Page 163 - South; but there is no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they have made,— what is more than either,— they have made a nation.
Page 113 - If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you, or to any other persons in Washington. " You have done your best to sacrifice this army.