The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 | Jay Winik

The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 | Jay Winik | Entertaining

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The Great Upheaval...

	The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 Jay Winik Harper, 2007 - 688 pages average customer review:based on 45 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A stunning history book!

The Great Upheaval is a book that's not just a history book, but also a book that makes for great reading. The author pays equal emphais, I think, to rendering an accurate and detailed historical accounting of the last part of the 18th century as well as providing us with a memorable ride through history with his gripping portraits of the key players and critical happenings.

Once you read the book, you'll really understand the underpinnings of both the American and the French revolutions. You'll also, thanks to the meticulous reasearch of the author, get to intimately know people like Catherine the Great, Potemkin, Marie Antionette, Louis XVI, Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, the Ottoman kings, Lafayette, Robispierre.

The author describes numerous violent episodes and upheavals in vivid details that make the book seem more like a horror story at times. But such were the times indeed, and the writing matches the reality, I guess. anyone can clearly see the relatively peaceful nature of the American revolution compared to the liberation stuggle of people in other countries and come to understand what makes the American experience so unique.

All in all, you'll be more well grounded in history after reading this book. I strongly reccommend the book, both for history buffs as well as for people who like a well writeen book.

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Entertaining

Although a little theatrical in the prelude, it immediately takes off and places you at the center of events in several locations. Well written, well researched but above all it is written like a bestseller novel. It is in total stylistic contrast to Tim Blanning's "The Pursuit of Glory", the European state of affairs taking place at around the same time.

America, France and Russia

The thesis of this book is that the world was as almost as tightly wired in 1800 as it is now, hence turmoil hit in America, France and Russia at roughly the same time. The preface states the case sufficiently enough, but the book does not succeed in connecting the events. The book is meandering, over-written, almost self-indulgent in its efforts to support this idea. It reminds me of the joke about the lawyer who argues louder when he has a weaker case.

Reading this book felt like simultanously reading three books covering the same turbulent times in three different countries. Chapters are alternately entitled America, Franc, Russia, etc. If that is not enough of a hop scotch effect, even within the chapters the book has digressions. A meditation on slavery for example, goes back to its ancient history, as does a section on the Ottoman Empire. A good editor (I'm available) could have easily taken this book down by 120-140 pages and greatly improved it.

In fairness, as individual set pieces, these digressions were often informative, but if you are a specialist in any of these periods you will likely find them pedestrian. This is a book that in style and tone is for the general reader, although it is hard to imagine a general reader would be interested in all three story lines.

Still, Winik is a very good narrative story teller and many individual set pieces, such as the Bourbons attempting to escape the mob during the French Revolution, or John Paul Jones' adventures on the high seas, are compelling reading.

It would have been a much stronger book if Winik had chosen to follow one or several characters who actually were on the scene in the revolutions discussed here, such as Thaddesu Kosciusko, the Polish patriot who took part in the Revolutions in America and France and led Polish resistance to a Russian invasion in the 1790s. I suspect the author did not take that course becasue he could not find enough such characters. But their absence disproves his thesis.

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A quick review

Jay Winik is a colorful writer and makes turning pages easy. The historical accounts of 1788-1800 come to life through his depictions. The weakness in this book are the interjections of opinion (ie., the colonists PERCEIVED threat of tyranny from Britain) and biased fawning for autocrats (Catherine). He seems detached from the oppression of the masses and would probably be comfortable in a Versailles court living the "good life". Maybe he should take a cue from Howard Zinn on how to write passionate historical perspective from the people's point of view.

reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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