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

by Jay Winik

Book Overview

It is an era that redefined history. As the 1790s began, a fragile America teetered on the brink of oblivion, Russia towered as a vast imperial power, and France plunged into revolution. But in contrast to the way conventional histories tell it, none of these remarkable events occurred in isolation. Now, for the first time, in The Great Upheaval , acclaimed historian Jay Winik masterfully illuminates how their fates combined in one extraordinary moment...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060083131
• ISBN13: 9780060083137
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 688 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Simply brilliant

Jay Winik is one of the finest, and most stylish, historians writing. This book is as wonderful as his triumphant "April, 1865."

The Werks -- This Book is Fantastic

Jay Winik's newest book is a well-written, well-reasoned and enjoyable read. Mr. Winik brings to life the swirling currents of late 18th century history and politics with his keen eye for interesting anecdotes and his journalist's instinct for superb story-telling. His thesis -- that the great transformations of France, Russia, and the United States were inter-related and influenced by each other -- is brilliantly supported in this thought-provoking book. Mr. Winik demonstrates, as no historian has before, how interconnected were the fates of the leading nations of the time, England, France, Russia and the nascent United States. Mr. Winik has an especially keen ability to bring to life the leading actors in this historical drama by giving the reader vivid details and rich biographical narratives. It's a fun read and it will expand your thinking about the great nations of today and how they came to be as a result of the "great thinkers and doers" of this fascinating, turning-point era.

A masterpiece

This book is riveting. Just as Jay Winik changed the way we see the end of the Civil War in April 1865, he's done it again for the Founding period in The Great Upheaval. America was never isolated from the rest of the world--from the moment of its birth it was enmeshed in events in Revolutionary France and far-off Russia. Winik exquisitely recreates this world--from the tortured in-fighting of our nation's founders, to the bloodshed of the French Terror, to Catherine the Great's Russian armies making (ultimately futile) war on Islam. Woven into these events is also a heart-breaking history of slavery and a fantastic look inside the heart of the Islamic Ottoman empire. I was engrossed by Winik's renditions of not just the Americans, like Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Adams and their epic struggles to build a nation, but also his depictions of Catherine the Great--so vital to these times and so often ignored, as well as the Louis XVI and Marie Antionette, Napoleon, and Robespierre. Unike too many books, which are great only for the first 50 pages, this one builds with drama--the French Revolutionaries actually sought to start a rebellion on American soil and George Washington believed that America's envoys to France had been guillotined. But beyond the incredible story of holy war, revolution, and fierce rebellion inside the U.S., the lessons from this book stay with you: In Russia, imperial hubris drove flawed crusades against the Islamic world. In France, the political opposition guillotined their opponents. In America, George Washington learned to tolerate them--and taught others to do the same. This lesson of tolerance, of respecting divergent views, of balance and compromise in the face of the most bitter disputes is one the nation can desperately use again today. But these lessons can also give us hope. The Great Upheaval is a masterpiece, and it couldn't have arrived at a better time.

Better Than APRIL 1860

Jay Winik's newest book, The Great Upheaval, is better than his award-winning April 1860 only because the pleasure of reading it lasts so much longer at over 600 pages. This history of the last decade of the 18th century, which juxtaposes events taking place in the United States, France and Russia, will make many schools and universities rethink the way they teach American and modern European history. In most learning institutions these subjects are treated in separate courses. Winik's thesis challenges that approach. He asserts, and then proves beyond doubt, that events in these three countries during this time had considerable effect on one another. He artfully explains how in a comprehensive work that obviates the need for three separate courses by alternating chapters that artfully picture for us those interrelations. Benjamin Franklin knew everyone who was anyone in the period during the French Revolution. Catherine the Great had Voltaire and other philosophes in her pocket. Polish nobility played at a role approaching that of La Fayette in the American Revolution. The war between Islam and the Infideles was a hot, not a Cold War. For anyone interested in any part of this historical period, this book is a must. And if your interest starts with only one of these three countries, I guarantee that you won't be skipping any chapters; you will quickly become a convert to Winik's position that you cannot understand events within your country of interest without understanding what was happening elsewhere. For anyone who loves to read history when it is not dryly presented, you will be overwhelmed at the pleasure of reading this just for fun.

An epic struggle to secure the blessings of liberty

The Great Upheaval is a riviting story of America's founding and amazing survival in the midst of a global "Great Upheaval." Then as now - Russia, France and the Islamic world were players. There was even an Islamic holy war going on. Winik shows how America's Revolution, followed by an even bloodier revolt and terror in France, a savage war between the Islamic world and Russia - that spilled into the West as far away as Ireland - offer lessons for today. There are memorable insights of - Washington, Catherine the Great, Louis VI, Kosciuzko, John Paul Jones - even into the hidden court of the Ottoman Empire and its traditions... A great read!!