Forge of Empires 1861-1871: Three Revolutionary Statesmen and the World They Mad

Description: Forge of Empires 1861-1871 by Michael Knox Beran In 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: Abraham Lincoln freed a subjugated race and transformed the American Republic.Tsar Alexander II broke the chains of the serfs and brought the rule of law to Russia.Otto von Bismarck threw over the petty Teutonic princes, defeated the House of Austria and the last of the imperial Napoleons, and united the German nation. 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 Berans 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 freedoms 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 historys most significant decades. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Michael Knox Beran has written for The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and The New Yorker. A graduate of Columbia, Cambridge, and Yale Law School, he is a lawyer and lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife and daughter. Excerpt from Book Forge of Empires Chapter 1 THREE PEOPLES ON THE PRECIPICE Saint Petersburg, January 1861 IN THE WINTER PALACE two court functionaries walked down a long gallery towards a pair of massive bronze doors. They tapped thrice with their wands, ebony batons surmounted with double-headed eagles. The doors were thrown open, and the Tsar of Russia emerged from the seclusion of his private apartments, together with his Tsaritsa. As he passed through galleries of his palace, the Tsar acknowledged, with the merest nod of his head, the bows and curtsies of the court. Every so often he would catch the eye of some devoted servant of the state, dressed, after the fashion of the eighteenth century, in silk stockings and a coat heavy with gold embroidery. The happy courtier, his face flushed with pride, would look about to see whether those around him had observed the mark of imperial approbation. The Tsar and Tsaritsa proceeded to the Nicholas Hall, blazing with the light of a dozen chandeliers and ten thousand candles. Diamonds and sapphires sparkled on aristocratic bosoms; the cross and star of Alexander Nevsky flashed on glittering uniforms; moir Details ISBN0743270703 Author Michael Knox Beran Language English ISBN-10 0743270703 ISBN-13 9780743270700 Media Book Format Paperback Residence Pound Ridge, NY, US Year 2011 Publication Date 2011-03-01 Short Title FORGE OF EMPIRES DEWEY 909.81 UK Release Date 2011-03-01 Place of Publication New York, NY Country of Publication United States Illustrations black & white illustrations AU Release Date 2011-03-01 NZ Release Date 2011-03-01 US Release Date 2011-03-01 Pages 512 Publisher Simon & Schuster Imprint The Free Press Subtitle Three Revolutionary Statesmen and the World They Made Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:35880349;

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