A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided. Amanda Foreman. Alien Lane. £30.00. xliv + 988 pages. ISBN 978-1-846-14204-8. If the size of a book indicates its worth, this book, whose text runs from page 3 to page 816 is a very good book. It sets out to chronicle and investigate the relationships among the United States, the Confederate States, and the United Kingdom between 1861 and 1865. It ends up being, in large measure, a history of the war between the two American powers. While there is no really new insight the author does people her vast canvas like one of Frith 's panoramic paintings and her dramatis personae include both leading figures in all three countries as well as more minor characters. This approach keeps the text from sagging under its own weight and allows her to argue her main point, i.e. that Britain was involved at many levels in virtually all aspects of the war between the two countries and not just in British volunteers in both armies. While Dr Foreman made use of some MS sources, the bulk of her work was among printed sources and published histories. On occasion her grasp of economic history is less than sure: to say that the 'entire commercial infrastructure of the South collapsed' without slavery is very wide of the mark. Her attempts at fairness do not keep her from following the usual approach in extolling the sainted Lincoln and minimising his illegal acts and blatant hypocrisy. But to do otherwise in a book aimed mainly at the US market would have been foolish. (J.S.D.)