A beautifully observed history of the British home front during the Napoleonic Wars by a celebrated historianWe know the thrilling; terrible stories of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars―but what of those left behind? The people on a Norfolk farm; in a Yorkshire mill; a Welsh iron foundry; an Irish village; a London bank; a Scottish mountain? The aristocrats and paupers; old and young; butchers and bakers and candlestick makers―how did the war touch their lives?Jenny Uglow; the prizewinning author of The Lunar Men and Nature's Engraver; follows the gripping back-and-forth of the first global war but turns the news upside down; seeing how it reached the people. Illustrated by the satires of Gillray and Rowlandson and the paintings of Turner and Constable; and combining the familiar voices of Austen; Wordsworth; Scott; and Byron with others lost in the crowd; In These Times delves into the archives to tell the moving story of how people lived and loved and sang and wrote; struggling through hard times and opening new horizons that would change their country for a century.
#470493 in Books 1985Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 #File Name: 0349133654447 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. 3000 Years of Folly and still we continue...By Devilodg19693000 Years of Folly and still we continue down the same road generation after generation inventing new forms of governance and yet falling into to same pit time and again... the one person we should ask to lead us is the one imbued with honesty not ambition! This is a Tuchman at her best; should be read every 4 years going into a Presidential election. Five star read and more...9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. PREFIGURES THE POLITICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES OF OUT TIMESBy Joseph N. de RaismesJust reread this 25 years after the first read. As good as ever; and full of understanding for a calamitous time of misfortune and misrule that prefigures the present. Barbara Tuchman graces the English language as few modern artists seem to be able to do.4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. We humans and our small household errorsBy Odysseus at homeThis is my second Barbara Tuchman book and I would say that I love this woman. Her style traces an exact meridian line between intelligence and lucidity. She moves along it without missing; never; what she wants to convey. She's dead; unfortunately; but through her books she is still alive. And in my modest view; she will still survive many generations.Why?Because the topics she addresses are timeless and are always here with us. After finishing this book I thought if there will be a day when our rulers do their work accordingly. I guess not. To make mistakes is part of the game. Nobody is free because human race is not an exception in animal kingdom and so is open to make mistakes. We screw things up. And we don't feel sorry.What do we need to do the right thing? Intelligence? No. Academic studies? No.Compassion perhaps. And Courage to bring it to its limits. As you read the book you think if there are examples of savvy and healthy political programs that save the world from our senselessness. I guess there are. But how to notice it. How to record things that goes beyond any record because they never happened. The guy who didn't die because there were not bombardment; doesn't know he is alive because someone didn't give an order to shatter his world.Miss Tuchman doesn't addresses that issue; anyway; instead she displays in front of you the cruel inventory of the unnecessary deaths that the wrong answer; even of highly sophisticated governments; determined. She tells you how the wrong answer was full of good suggestions that could avoid the final output. In every case there was a chance of doing the right thing; I mean; before the facts. And in every case; the authority did the wrong thing.From Troy to Vietnam has always been the same thing; so I would add to the title "From Troy to Vietnam... and beyond."We live in a world ruled by governments that think not like rulers but like householders. Not much more. Politics at the highest level; Tuchman reminds us; is not more sophisticated than you could conceive. We are always the head of a family that believe that being the head of a nation give us special powers to solve problems. And it is not like that. The method for making ends meet is only one whether you are in the living room of your house or in the hall of a palace addressing a speech.Just think about it.Now; while I'm going to read "A distant mirror;" you should try "The March..."You won't feel cheated; at all.
