Can anyone recommend books that interpret US historical events from a foreign perspective? I’m particularly interested in British interpretations of the American War for Independence and the American Civil War. Also, biographies of American personalities written for foreign audiences. Thanks.
Christopher Hibberts’ “Redcoats and Rebels” might be just the ticket for you re the Revolution. I thought it was pretty good, anyway.
Lawrence James’ The Rise and Fall of the British Empire has an interesting chapter on the Revolution. Little else, though. I don’t see a lot of history books for foreign audiences where I live.
BTW, are you the Hugh that I see posting at the POE forums? Cool name.
I’m not that Hugh Jass. I used to submit to the Dysfunctional Family Circus as Hugh Jass, though. What is POE?
Hugh Brogan’s The History of the United States of America (much reprinted and revised) is the obvious academic overview of US history in general by a British historian. Rather dry for my tastes.
Few biographies of US historical figures by British historians spring to mind, though I’m sure they do exist. For some reason, neither of the two examples that do come to me offhand are relevant to your period and both are by writers who’re best known as politicians: Roy Jenkins on Truman and Jonathan “Sword of Truth” Aitken on Nixon. The reputation of the former is rather higher than that of the latter.
In my opinion, history books tell you much more about the author
than the subject. Was the ‘West’ won, or was it lost?
Good for you for looking from an alternative perspective.
One, possibly more relevant, example that one remembers is Jan Morris’ recentish Lincoln: A Foreigner’s Quest (see here). Haven’t read it and, again, she’s not an academic historian, but is well known for writing histories (e.g. Pax Britanica, though that was as James Morris).
History of the American People by Paul Johnson sounds like the kind of book you might be interested in, especially since it is quite biographical in its style. It’s very readable, but I can’t vouch for his accuracy (one British paper ran a series of stories mocking him for the basic errors in the book). Nonetheless, he is generally well-regarded as a writer, if a bit mad and very right-wing.
What about textbooks for foreign universities? I know that my local university offers several courses in the history of various foreign countries. I would also wager to be that some of them are written by outsiders of that country. So wouldn’t the reverse work as well?
There’s always the very famous ‘Democracy in America’ by Alexis de Tocqueville written in 1831.
One of my favorite historical sources are the Historical novels of George MacDonald Fraser"… specifically the exhaustively researched Flashman series. “Flashman and the Redskins”, deals specifically with the exploration of the West and is pretty interesting. If you read them, be sure to check out the footnotes.
You might check out “Those Damned Rebels: The American Revolution as Seen Through British Eyes” by Michael Pearson.