Stars, Stripes, and Italian Tricolor: The United States and Italy, 1946-1989

Book Description

This groundbreaking review and analysis of relations between the United States and Italy since the early postwar years is distinguished by the author's use of a unique combination of sources: hundreds of reports and analyses published by the author in U.S. and Italian dailies and magazines as events unfolded; his frequent interviews with ranking politicians and other leading figures in the two countries; U.S. and Italian government documents to which he has been the first outsider to gain access; and reports and comments by other journalists and students of Italian affairs and Italo-American relations. The result is the most comprehensive and balanced study of relations between the two countries published to date. Demonstrating that the U.S. media has often conveyed a view of Italian politics that does not correspond with reality, the author argues that the roots of Italian democracy have proved to be less fragile than most observers thought. Students of European politics will find Wollemborg's analysis a welcome counterweight to those who have frequently forecast impending Communist takeovers, military coups, political anarchy, and economic collapse in Italy. Wollemborg asserts that most U.S. observers have badly underestimated the resources and resiliency of the Italian economy as well as the Italian people's capacity to stand up to and defeat such threats to their democratic institutions as the surge of terrorism in the mid-1970s. He also shows that at some critical junctures, the U.S. government's approach was badly out of step with Italian developments, most notably in the late 1950s when they opposed the inclusion of Socialists in the ruling coalition. Both the U.S. and Italian media, Wollemborg shows, have contributed to strains in the relationship by portraying the other country unfavorably or by ascribing the wrong motives and beliefs to political parties and actors. Finally, Wollemborg explores present-day relations, demonstrating that cooperation between the United States and Italy is closer now than at any time during the postwar period--reflecting both the weakening of Communist influence in Italy and the rise of the Italo-American community in the United States.

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Triumphant Again!?!
1066 Redux
Pathetic end to a truly dreadful series
Readable nonsense
Interesting idea brought to the painful ending...

Stars and Stripes Triumphant
Harry Harrison
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 034540937X
Release Date: 2003-01-01

Book Description

In England, Irish-born citizens are being herded into prison camps. On the high seas, a furious British Navy is seizing American cargo ships bound for Europe. And on the Thames, a new weapon of unparalleled destructive force is sailing toward an impregnable city–spearheaded by a daring act of espionage. For U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, Britain’s Queen Victoria, Lord Palmerston, and a loyal opposition, a day of reckoning is at hand . . . and so is history’s most astounding battle.

Harry Harrison’s series of alternate history, based on the U.S. Civil War, stands as a provocative work of imagination, drama, and brilliant historical insight. Now in the thrilling finale, Harrison tells a stunning, action-packed story of America’s rapidly growing military might being locked, loaded, and aimed at the heart of England itself.

For the two countries that share a language and a heritage, the conflict began at the dawn of the U.S. Civil War. Just as America was about to tear itself to pieces, Britain itself committed an act of war by seizing a U.S. packet ship. In retaliation, the Confederate States rejoined the Union and took up arms against England. Repulsing a British invasion, and defeating her majesty’s army first in Canada, then in Mexico, then in Ireland, American pride and power swelled. Britain, like a wounded lion, howled in shame and anger. Now, Queen Victoria’s empire is more dangerous than ever before, turning against the Irish on her own soil, flexing her naval might, and all but forcing a weary President Lincoln to authorize the next step in a headlong journey toward war.

A tale of daring and strategy, Stars and Stripes Triumphant explores how arrogance turns superpowers into victims, how regional conflicts can explode into world wars, and how the personalities of a few men and women can change the course of history itself–for better or for worse.

Customer Reviews:

Triumphant Again!?!.......2007-05-14

Stars and Stripes Triumphant is the third book of a trilogy by Harry Harrison in which once again the Republic of the United States is threatened by a United Kingdom seeking revenge due to previous loses of her empire to the upstart colonial States. This third and final installment of the Stars and Strips Trilogy does have the excitement and detail as the other books of this trilogy; however, overall it suffers the fate as most series and sequels.

The first, Stars and Stripes Forever, detailed the abortive American Civil War, abruptly ended when the Union and Confederacy re-joined in order to stop a continental invasion by the British Empire. The US is Triumphant and also secures Canada into the ever growing list of Democratic Countries. The second, Stars and Stripes in Peril, described a British counterattack, followed by an American invasion of Ireland and a successful attempt to free that beleaguered nation from British misrule. Once Again, the US is Triumphant as well as adding another couple of Democratic Countries (Mexico & Ireland). In the third and final installment, Stars and Stripes Triumphant, Britain resorts to policies that did not work in the War of 1812 coupled with the forced incarceration of Irish peoples in Concentration Camps which capitulates into another War between Britain and the United States.

Like most of Harry Harrison's books, this is a very good read. He is a fine writer and is detail oriented. The concept, about a reunited America against a tyrannical Great Britain, is clever. European powers are not quite sure what to think of this New United States and the Republics that have been created since Re-unification. Assassination attempts, Historical Characters, Espionage, Inventions, Battles, & Philosophy are all part of this book (and series). Creating specific events based on what really did happen (in the real world) demonstrates that Harrison has put some historical thought into the series. The first part of this book basically provides background information that helps the reader with the later part of the book in which the invasion of Great Britain actually occurs. Like all of Harrison's books, the last few chapters deal with the aftermath of the climax, of which in this case, the outcome of an American invasion.

Although the fine detail helped the reader, there wasn't a lot of suspense. The reader, at least I did, knew the outcome of the battle(s), the climax, and of this "Alternate Earth" while reading the book. One could determine the fate of Great Britain without reading the last installment of the trilogy. Stars and Stripes Triumphant suffers from the same problem as Stars and Stripes in Peril, great detail and story; yet, the excitement and suspense were not there.

Besides the lack of suspense, some other concerns were characters. Although I enjoyed the idea of having some fantastic Historical Characters interact; these characters seemed one dimensional. Any character would have done just as well replacing these historical figures. The first part of the book is very detailed oriented to give the reader the basic idea of the European attitudes as well as a tour of the Great Britain coastline. Realize that this is an "Alternate" view of history; I can accept that major advances in weaponry as part of the Sci-Fi Genre which did not take away from the story. Who really knows what would have happened if this fictional war did occur; many advances in weaponry have occurred due to war and the crises that arises during war. My problem was the method of the espionage and the encounters with the Russian Count were somewhat unbelievable. There were so many "close calls" that after each one, it seemed a little far fetched. Lastly, this last installment of the trilogy seemed to lack the overall excitement of Stars and Stripes Forever; that is, the novelty was gone.

I have enjoyed Harry Harrison's Books in the past. His Eden Trilogy is a great series about an Alternate Earth in which Dinosaurs and Mammals evolve simultaneously; very detailed oriented, sound scientific ideas, and great characters. I would also recommend his Deathworld Trilogy; however, this trilogy suffers the same fate exactly as the Stars and Strips Trilogy; that is, the first book of each series, Deathworld and Stars & Strips Forever respectively, are the best books of the series.

If one is interested in Alternate Civil War books, I would suggest Harry Turtledove's "How Few Remain" & "Guns of the South", Robert Conrad's "1862", or Various Author's "Alternate Gettysburg's". However, if reading Turtledove's "How Few Remain", be prepared to read the next 3 installations concerning WWI & WWII between the Union and Confederate States on the North American Continent.

I would recommend this book as a good enjoyable read; however, realize that the unique idea created in the first installment is missing, there really isn't really a big threat to the Stars & Strips which will be Triumphant again. It is a feel good book in which the American Attitude and Philosophy has won.

1066 Redux.......2007-01-09

The aged, entrenched mentality of the 19th-century British Empire could certainly have overlooked some of the innovative weapons and tactics employed by the upstart United States after America successfully invaded Ireland. In conservative Britain, enemies might be seen everywhere, especially among the ex-pat Irish living among them. It wouldn't be an unnatural response to round them all up and "concentrate" them in camps where they could be watched more closely. The result would be a repressive society that had not yet come to terms with its military over-extension; a society that now felt safe at home; a society willing to use its powerful navy to interdict American ships, seize American cargos, and impress American sailors into service.

It is 1812 all over again, but this time America is mobilized and strong.

General William Tecumseh Sherman sees the writing on the wall and begins to lay plans for what he realizes is inevitable. When the time comes, he launches his invasion of England, which falls like a house of cards--like the Berlin Wall. American ironclads sail up the Thames. Scotland sees its chance, finally, and pulls away from England. It is all over very quickly. This is the way empires fall.

"Stars and Stripes Triumphant" is the one book in this series in which I wished that Harrison would have gone into a bit more detail regarding the political aftermath of the conquest of England. There are so many parallels throughout history, and universal lessons that are also playing themselves out in the world today. Would that the modern-day lessons of this series had been required reading at the Defense Department. Still, this final installment is entertaining and plausible.

Pathetic end to a truly dreadful series.......2006-06-21

I enjoyed everything else I have read from Harry Harrison, and am fascinated by alternative history, so I expected to like the "Stars and Stripes" trilogy. I didn't.

The three books in the series are:

Stars and Stripes Forever
Stars and Stripes in Peril
Stars and Stripes Triumphant.

The starting premise of the first book - Britain blundering into war with the North in the American civil war - is horrifying plausible, which is not surprising as this very nearly happened. However, the author then abandoned any attempt at either a realistic attempt to work through what might have happened, or to look sympathically at how the situation might have developed from the viewpoint of all sides. Instead, looking for a way to turn both the USA and CSA into heroes, he cast the Brits as incompetent and evil cretins who both sides could unite against.

The second book was round two, with Britain invading the US again and getting beaten again, and the US deciding to "liberate" Ireland. The third book is round three. Given what has previously happened, most of the second and third books are not as ludicrous as the first one - although there are still some pretty silly things - but the basic premise still takes the course of the story too far away from anything which could realistically have happened in our world to work as alternative history.

Like the first two novels in the series, this book is basically written for people like the idea of presenting Americans as idealistic wonderful heroes, including those who in real history fought to preserve slavery, and British people as caricatures of evil idiots.

Harry Harrison is almost the last writer on earth I would have expected to prostitute his considerable talents with such chauvinistic rubbish as the Stars and Stripes trilogy. One-sided nationalism is not usually his style, and he has written another book about a set of events which might have changed the course of the US Civil War/War between the States - "Rebel in Time" - which is far superior to this.

For anyone who is looking for a good account of how the American Civil war might have gone wrong, try Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South," or "How Few Remain" and the "Great War" and "American Empire" trilogies which follow it. Or indeed Harry Harrison's "Rebel in Time".

Readable nonsense.......2005-09-13

"So, Mr Ericsson, what marvel do you have for us today?" General Sherman enquired.
"Well, Cumph - you don't mind me calling you Cumph do you? Everyone else in the books seems to do so." Ericsson replied.
"Of course not dear chap - we're all on first name terms here."
Well, then - my latest engineering marvel I term the stealth bomber. I was going to come up with some ridiculous name from Norse mythology but I got tired of constantly getting knocked back by those egg-heads in the Department of War."
"Mr Ericsson - you've quite outdone yourself this time."
"Not at all Cumph - those Wright boys were taking too long to get born and all so I just sped things along a little" Ericsson proudly claimed.
"And what is this peculiar contraption" General Grant queried?
"Well Sir, make that Ulysses, that is something I just knocked up in my spare time. I call it a Global Positioning System - or GPS if you prefer. You remember those extra large firecrackers I let off awhile back? They are what make this thing possible. No more risk of landing in the wrong place like those stupid Brits whom we all thoroughly detest because they are without exception arrogant and obnoxious, unlike our good selves. This little device will tell you exactly where you are in the world to within a few feet."
"Well, that will really reinforce the new American hegemony" said Sherman. "Time to teach those blasted English another lesson and still be home in time for tea. Thank goodness those race disruptions seemed to entirely disappear after the shooting of old Jeff Davis. Funny how spiriting away the perpetrator ended the whole thing without another peep but I ain't one to complain."
"Hooray for the good old USA!"
And the three of them, the two old warhorses and the Swedish engineer - but Americans all - rode off into the sunset together.
A little excerpt from the fourth book of the series??? No, but it almost could be. Having just finished the series I found it to be readable and moderately entertaining, if not increasingly implausible by the rate of military advances and infrastrature and materiel development. But more bothersome was the unremitting negative stereotypical portrayal of the English. It almot got too much to bear.

Interesting idea brought to the painful ending..........2005-08-17

The reason this book gets four stars is because Harry Harrison did such a good job of building the foundation of the story. He deals not just with the USA and England, but on how the European nations were dealing with the events, past and present. A shot is not fired in anger till about page 128. And even after the war there are chapters and chapters of post-war events to tie it all up. Now if only the events and characters of the conflict were as realistic as the logic he used to set it up. But if you've stayed with the series up to this third and last book you are already use to the grand and sweeping scenes that keep the plot moving. Now I know the reason for the trilogy - Mr. Harrison wanted to find a way to free Ireland and Scotland!
The plot drives the book, like the last two, and logic be damned.
Fun, but that's all.

Stars and Stripes: Patriotic Motifs in American Folk Art

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Stars and Stripes: Patriotic Motifs in American Folk Art
Deborah Harding , and Paul S. D'Ambrosio
Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0847824853
Release Date: 2002-12-06

Book Description

As a burgeoning nation that had fought hard for its indepedence, late eighteenth-century America was quick to develop visual symbols to represent the newfound freedom and unity of its citizens--the flag representing the thirteen colonies, the American eagle, Lady Liberty. In Stars and Stripes: Patriotic Motifs in American Folk Art, author Deborah Harding finds these and other patriotic images decorating quilts and coverlets, whirligigs and weather vanes, game boards and fire buckets--almost no object that could be painted, stitched, or carved was spared embellishment with our country's colors or symbols. Harding examines these objects, from the minute to the monumental, the whimsical to the more sober, with an eye to both the artistic and historical significance of each piece. Among the items that her extensive research and archival work have unearthed include the flag, hand painted with the figure of Liberty, which was in Lincoln's booth the night he was assassinated and the coverlet crocheted by Grace Coolidge who wished to begin a tradition of First Ladies leaving a memento in the White House. This groundbreaking volume, the first to examine such a wide range of these early patriotic images, makes visual to the twenty-first-century reader our nation's earliest displays of pride and patriotism.

Stars and Stripes in Peril (Stars & Stripes Trilogy)

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History Continues To Adjust
How did this get published?
Second in a truly dreadful trilogy
Better than the first book...
Decent Alternate History

Stars and Stripes in Peril (Stars & Stripes Trilogy)
Harry Harrison
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0345409361
Release Date: 2001-10-02

Amazon.com

Harry Harrison has been publishing science fiction for half a century; this novel appears in 2000, the year of his 75th birthday. His 1998 Stars and Stripes Forever was a foray into alternative history at the time of the U.S. Civil War. An opportunistic British invasion is so badly bungled that it unites warring Union and Confederate forces against the common enemy, and the course of events is rousingly changed.

Now it's 1863 and perfidious Albion is making a comeback via the Pacific, establishing a Mexican beachhead and planning attacks on united America's "soft underbelly" in the Gulf of Mexico. Gurkha and Sepoy troops build roads while sweaty white officers express nostalgia for England: "I despair of ever seeing her blissfully cold and fog-shrouded shores again."

An early coup of misdirection makes the British advance seem unstoppable--but America forges ahead with new guns and naval armor, and General Robert E. Lee devises an audacious counterblow. What better way to disrupt Britain's wicked schemes than to strike at her own rebellious province of Ireland?

Harrison, an American, perhaps overdoes the lofty dignity of figures like Abraham Lincoln, while showing British politicians with their full complement of warts. But the breathless, headlong action sweeps you away as the battle is planned and at last joined. Even hardened English patriots will feel a sense of wish-fulfillment at the possibility that America may solve the "Irish Question" for them. This is a rapid-paced, slightly slapdash, and unfailingly energetic adventure in alternate history--all great fun. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

"HARRY HARRISON IS ONE OF SCIENCE FICTION’S MOST PROLIFIC AND ACCOMPLISHED CRAFTSMEN."
—The New York Times Book Review

In the midst of Civil War, a stunned North and South join forces to combat a sudden attack of British troops. Though the Americans are victorious, three years later a new threat emerges. Her Majesty’s Army is massing for a possible attack through Texas. Into the gauntlet Lincoln sends his chosen angel of death, General Ulysses S. Grant—while his top soldiers, including Robert E. Lee and William Tecumseh Sherman, plan the most daring naval invasion ever launched: an assault on British soil itself.

Stars and Stripes in Peril is the new masterwork from one of the world’s most provocative authors. Venturing beyond a fascinating question of what if? Harry Harrison brilliantly examines the people and passions that make up nations both great and small—and shows how technology and politics had the power to shape history’s first great World War . . . half a century before it began . . .

"Lovers of novels of alternate history hold Harry Harrison in high regard and his latest book can only enhance that esteem."
—Abilene Reporter News

Customer Reviews:

History Continues To Adjust.......2007-01-09

From a single small change in history came a British invasion of the United States and the reunification of Union and Confederacy. The British were driven out, Canada declared its independence from the United Kingdom, and then things settled down for a little while. But Harry Harrison knows his history (unfortunately, he knows his history better than our current gaggle of politicians), he knows that an enemy unconquered is an enemy undefeated. Britain has a new plan: to invade the United States through a politically divided and tumultuous Mexico. How successful have we been at securing our border with Mexico today? Would it have been possible to secure that border in the 1860s? No. A bold counter-invasion is necessary. Considering how many Irish have emigrated to America, considering America's easy access, then, to military intelligence of the Emerald Isle as well as soldiers who are highly motivated to return home in triumph, an American invasion of Ireland is a plausible counter-move to the British presence in Mexico.

Harrison's "Stars and Stripes" series continues to entertain, with stories not too spare in detail, but not bogged down in detail either. Innovative machines of war, which began to appear in reality during the Civil War, are further accelerated by the new threat from Britain, as innovation is always driven by the pressures of war and security. These weapons launch General William Tecumseh Sherman well ahead of his Continental counterparts, and catch them wholly unprepared. He discovers "Lightening War"--Blitzkrieg--quite by accident when he realizes that he can move his troops quickly by train and overwhelm traditional defenses with his modern weapons. Warfare has inadvertently leapt into the 20th century in an eerie precursor of what we all know was to come.

I know the Brits are none-too-fond of this series, and I don't blame them, but these books are fun reading on this side of the pond. Just the alternate-idea of General Robert E. Lee's invasion of northern Ireland is enough to thrill.

How did this get published?.......2006-07-11

Okay.... It started out with a harmless, poorly researched novel that was okay for the non-historian. Now it is just silly. Really, it is too ridiculous to even give credence to. Britons are dumb, the Union is all-powerful, and 1942 clearly wasn't that far from 1862, as the USA seems to have mastered every technological advancement short of air power. I will not even bother with his last book, and I recommend you not bother with this one.

Second in a truly dreadful trilogy.......2006-06-21

I enjoyed everything else I have read from Harry Harrison, and am fascinated by alternative history, so I expected to like the "Stars and Stripes" trilogy. I didn't.

The three books in the series are:

Stars and Stripes Forever
Stars and Stripes in Peril
Stars and Stripes Triumphant.

The starting premise of the first book - Britain blundering into war with the North in the American civil war - is horrifying plausible, which is not surprising as this very nearly happened. However, the author then abandoned any attempt at either a realistic attempt to work through what might have happened, or to look sympathically at how the situation might have developed from the viewpoint of all sides. Instead, looking for a way to turn both the USA and CSA into heroes, he cast the Brits as incompetent and evil cretins who both sides could unite against.

In this second book the principle that the USA and CSA had united against the Brits is already established and Harrison just takes it from there. Given what has previously happened, most of the book is not as ludicrous as the first one - although there are still some pretty silly things - but the basic premise still takes the course of the story too far away from anything which could realistically have happened in our world to work as alternative history.

Harry Harrison is almost the last writer on earth I would have expected to prostitute his enormous talents with such chauvinistic rubbish as the Stars and Stripes trilogy. One-sided nationalism is not usually his style at all, and he has written another book about a set of events which might have changed the course of the US Civil War/War between the States - "Rebel in Time" - which is far superior to this.

For anyone who is looking for a good account of how the American Civil war might have gone wrong, try Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South," or "How Few Remain" and the "Great War" and "American Empire" trilogies which follow it. Or indeed Harry Harrison's "Rebel in Time".

Better than the first book..........2004-11-20

Yeah, that kind of surprised me too, till I figured out why - it is no longer based on our REAL history. It has gone so far off track that Harry Harrison can write it anyway he wants and as long as he keeps to the logic and reality he set up in the first book it works. I also loved the scene between John Ericsson and William P. Parrott as well as the scene between Mr. Ericsson and Captain Raphael Semmes.
But most of the book feels rushed and the characters are bland, cut out paper dolls, set up to do certain actions and say certain things for the plot to go in THAT direction.
Anyway, the plot is England and allied European nations invade Mexico. The invasion of the US is just around the corner and Lincoln decides he has to do something about it. So they decide the best way to open a second front and force Britain to withdraw its troops is to invade Ireland.
It sounds simple, but even Mr. Harrison shows that the United States Army and Navy would have a few problems they couldn't foresee.
But after 334 pages you know there is going to be a third book.

Decent Alternate History.......2003-10-01

Like some of the readers here I found this to be an enjoyable but ultimately forgettable read. I have not read the first novel but it was easy to get into this one without having done so. What is strange about the book is that it is not lacking in pages (it's long for a sci fi novel) yet there isn't much detail. Probably because there's so much ground to cover. Yet one comes away with the impression that invading and liberating Ireland would have been extremely simple. Whole battles are resolved in the space of a few sentences. Even the Protestant problem Harrison brings up is dealt with in a matter of a few pages.

There are also a couple of situations where Harrison sets up problems just to lengthen the story. So he offers a ridiculous setup and an even more ridiculous solution. A good example of this is when the secret service agent is following the spy into the tavern, watches him for hours, and then suddenly leaves at the perfect time to "get a bite to eat". Just silly.

Unlike another reviewer I wasn't exactly put off by the dropping of the Jefferson Davis as night rider storyline - it was rather embarassingly foolish. So the ex-president of the Confederacy spends months recovering from a nearly fatal wound to ... put on a hood and ride around with a white trash movement like the KKK? Give me a break. Not to mention that Jefferson lived on the coast in his palacial home (which is still a monument in Biloxi). And he just happens to be the only one shot in the raid? It was all very poorly constructed, and I would have preferred that Harrison make his points about the Freedmans' Bureau and the slowness of the South to change in a more elegant fashion.

Harrison's general attitude towards the South is rather tiresome throughout the novel. Most people come away from Civil War study with the naive opinion that the North was a land full of idealists who wanted to free the slaves, and the South was just a bunch of racist jerks. Not the case. The North was just as complicit in the construction of slave-based economy as the South was, and their plan for the dismantling of that economy was as nonexistent as our exit plan for Iraq. Certainly the system should have gone, but to expect it just to vanish because we suddenly deemed it not right was ignorant. But that's a whole matter in and of itself. It's just tiresome to see the place I grew up continuously misrepresented. I expected more from a Civil War buff like Harrison.

Book Description

When Stars and Stripes Met Hammer and Sickle tells the story of face-to-face citizen diplomacy that brought together Americans and Soviets during the closing years of the cold war. Looking specifically at five conferences held between 1985 and 1989, Ross Mackenzie recounts the experiences of artists, diplomats, government officials, and interested citizens who joined together for a unique mix of political debates, artistic performances, open discussions, and socializing. Sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution, a center for arts, education, religion, and recreation in western New York, these conferences offer a snapshot of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union just before the collapse of the Soviet government in November 1989. The meetings also point to the promising future of people-to-people diplomacy. Mackenzie chronicles the history of the Chautauqua Institution since its founding in 1874 and its influence on American foreign policy! . He explains the traditional Chautauqua formula that provides citizens an opportunity to meet without great restraints on topics of discussion or interaction. Mackenzie suggests that these conferences, coming at the time of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, may have been both a measure of the reforms' success and a driving force in continuing their momentum.

Highlighting the imaginative, wide-ranging approach employed by Chautauqua, Mackenzie recounts the scope of topics discussed at the conferences, from nuclear weapons, women's issues, and global health care to American intervention in Latin America and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. He also identifies the cross section of people drawn to participate, from average citizens to individuals of international renown, including U.S. policymakers Paul Wolfowitz and Paul Nitze, violinist Eugene Fodor, poets Andrei Voznesensky and Yevgeny Yevtushenko, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, musicians Grover Washington Jr. and Tommy Cecil, and politicians Mario Cuomo and Geraldine Ferraro.

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A more pressing problem

A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings...

How NOT to write alternate history

Neat idea, no research....at all

This is the only really dreadful thing Harrison has ever written

Stars & Stripes Forever: A Novel of Alternate History (Stars & Stripes Trilogy)
Harry Harrison
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Stars and Stripes in Peril (Stars & Stripes Trilogy)

Stars and Stripes Triumphant

1862: A Novel

Final Impact (The Axis of Time Trilogy, Book 3)

1901 1901

ASIN: 0345409345
Release Date: 1999-10-05

Book Description

On November 8, 1861, a U.S. navy warship stopped a British packet and seized two Confederate emissaries on their way to England to seek backing for their cause. England responded with rage, calling for a war of vengeance. The looming crisis was defused by the peace-minded Prince Albert. But imagine how Albert's absence during this critical moment might have changed everything. For lacking Albert's calm voice of reason, Britain now seizes the opportunity to attack and conquer a crippled, war-torn America.

Ulysses S. Grant is poised for an attack that could smash open the South's defenses. In Washington, Abraham Lincoln sees a first glimmer of hope that this bloody war might soon end. But then disaster strikes: English troops have invaded from Canada. With most of the Northern troops withdrawn to fight the new enemy, General William Tecumseh Sherman and his weakened army stand alone against the Confederates. Can a divided, bloodied America defeat England, or will the United States cease to exist for all time?

Customer Reviews:

A more pressing problem.......2007-09-07

Most of what can be said about this book has been said already. It has an interesting premise, and terrible execution. The characters are wooden, the dialogue painfully trite, and it relies entirely too much on coincidence. The British are the most inept gaggle of ninnies ever assembled under one flag. The presto-chango reconciliation is appalling. As for Harrison's inexplicable habit of using sentence fragments, I'm not sure whether this is an indication of poor editing or a lame attempt at an experimental writing style. It amply demonstrates that there is only one Harry to read for alternative history, and Mr. Harrison is not him.

But it's hardly the only bad Civil War novel. Jeff Shaara has made cranking them out into a cottage industry, and he's not the first, either. What is truly disturbing, especially for an established author like Mr. Harrison, is plagarism. Theft of intellectual property cannot be tolerated. So when Harrison uses John Stuart Mill to discuss the social and economic situation of Europe with Abraham Lincoln, he should not lift nearly two whole pages from Robert Heilbroner's book The Worldly Philosophers. Check out Heilbroner, the beginning of chapter 6. Numerous phrases inexplicably find their way into Stars and Stripes Forever. This shameful behavior, if made common knowledge, could very well end Mr. Harrison's literary career.

A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings..........2006-12-18

I'm going to be a bit more charitable to Harry Harrison than other reviewers of "Stars and Stripes Forever". A single second passes and becomes history, immutable, and we are all swept up in it, from events both large and small. It is easy to recollect a single instant in our own lives, question our actions, and wish that we had made a different decision, a decision that would have led to a vastly different outcome. Transfer this sentiment to a larger historical canvas and a cascade of events can ripple out from a single, seemingly innocuous focal point--in the case of the American Civil War, the death of Albert, the Queen's consort, a few weeks earlier than history records. What could have come from this, Harrison asks?

Harrison's transition of Union and Confederacy from antagonists to allies is clumsy, but by no means implausible. All of the triggers were there: the pragmatic assessment of the Confederacy's position in which the tea leaves did not necessarily predict a favorable outcome; horror at the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers who spoke the same language, worshipped the same god, and shared the same Revolutionary heroes; the necessity-of-war driven arrival of new weapons such as the breach-loading rifle and iron clad ships; an arrogant and effete British Empire. Harrison could have spent another hundred pages or so developing in greater depth the reunification of Union and Confederacy, but these pages were simply not necessary: just one small change to the historical sequence of events could certainly have led to a cascade of all of these triggers, with the unleashing of chaos and the instinctive human drive to restore order and put the cork back in the bottle.

"Stars and Stripes Forever" also serves as a feel-good piece during our era of political polarization. The Civil War is now too far in the past; too few remember that Americans have also experienced brutal war at home, seen American cities burned, civilians deprived and killed. These stark lessons seem to have faded, but many older Americans will remember a grandparent or great grandparent who fought in that war; a 19th century bible with Confederate money marking the pages; a tin-type photograph of a soldier whose features vaguely resemble our own; trees in the wooded lot out back that still yield minnie balls to Civil War buffs using metal detectors.

I found "Stars and Stripes Forever" to be a fun read. It is not high literature and does not claim to be anything more than what it is: a good, quick story to sate the curiosity of those of us who, as children, were fascinated by ships like the Monitor and Virginia (Merrimack), who wondered why the repeating rifle wasn't pushed into production much sooner--who wonder: What if things had been just a little different?

How NOT to write alternate history.......2006-08-15

When you're writing an alternate-history story, the correct thing to do is to set up your point of divergence and then let events develop naturally from there so that you and your readers can see at least one way things might otherwise have turned out. Harry Harrison does just the opposite in his "Stars and Stripes Forever" trilogy; he's set up a desired outcome and turned just about everything after his POD (the British go to war with the United States over the _Trent_ affair - to be fair, as another reviewer has noted, that part is well done) to achieve that desired end.

That's the root cause, to use a much-overused nonce phrase, of everything that's wrong with these three books. Harrison goes wrong as soon as he has the British fire on the Confederate town of Biloxi, Mississippi, in a friendly-fire incident as they try to find the Union forces they're supposed to attack. Actually, that's plausible enough, but what happens immediately thereafter is NOT plausible (especially if you consider the fact that we're talking about the British army, one of the best-disciplined in the world at any time in the last couple of centuries) and the absurdities just begin to pile up from there. As I said, Harrison has a predetermined objective in mind and he'll get there, come hell, high water, or counterfactual believability. The only real value these books have is as a sterling example of how NOT to write an alternate-history epic.

Neat idea, no research....at all.......2006-07-11

I love books like this, if they are well done and at least on some level believable. Unfortunately, this one is neither. The author obviously has not bothered to research the period at all and most of the action frankly makes no sense. Is it possible the North and South would have joined together? I suppose so. In fact I commend Mr. Harrison for not portraying the Confederates as one dimensional, evil villains as so much other fiction does. That said, it does not seem plausible. Especially considering that they joined forces after the British ACCIDENTALY attacked the South. The most powerful Navy in the world can't tell Mississippi from an island? Apparently in Harrison's world the British are all buffoons and the unbreakable Union could defeat anyone simply because they are American. Overall, the book is a disappointment. I give it 1.5 stars, mainly for the idea.

This is the only really dreadful thing Harrison has ever written .......2006-06-21

I enjoyed everything else I have read from Harry Harrison, and am fascinated by alternative history, so I expected to like this book. I didn't.

I think it does credit to the American reviewers who have criticised this book that it went down nearly as badly with them as it did with Brits. They have demonstrated that one comment by a British reviewer - that this book provides an insight into the American mind - is unfair to most Americans.

The starting premise - Britain blundering into war with the North in the American civil war - is horrifying plausible, which is not surprising as this very nearly happened. The first part of the book, up to that stage, is well done.

However, the author then abandons any attempt at either a realistic attempt to work through what might have happened, or to look sympathically at how the situation might have developed from the viewpoint of all sides. Instead, looking for a way to turn both the USA and CSA into heroes, he casts the Brits as utterly incompetent and evil cretins who both sides can unite against.

Although it isn't a positive for me to read a book in which my country is shown in a bad light, this doesn't usually make it impossible for me to enjoy a work of fiction. Heaven only knows Britain has had it's share of reverses and like every other country in the world has been responsible for some stupid or wicked mistakes. However, the increasingly implausible idiocy through which this book has the British blundering into war against both parties in the American civil war is way over the top. The idea that a Commander in Chief of any civilised nation could simultaneously be moronic enough to commit the acts attributed to the Duke of Cambridge in this book, and clever enough to prevent his own government finding out what he had done and sacking him, is ludicrous beyond belief.

Harry Harrison is almost the last writer on earth I would have expected to prostitute his enormous talents with such chauvinistic rubbish. One-sided nationalism is not usually his style at all, and he has written another book about a set of events which might have changed the course of the US Civil War/War between the States - "Rebel in Time" - which is far superior to this.

The market for this book is people who like America, hate the British, and are not too bothered about historical plausibility. So it may sell some copies in the USA, and probably a few in Ireland (though as I'm married to an Irish catholic girl I think I'm qualified to say that not everyone in Ireland falls into these categories.) In the rest of the world most of those who don't like the Brits don't like the USA either, and would be even less sympathetic to the CSA.

For anyone who is looking for a good account of how the American Civil war might have gone wrong, try Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South," or "How Few Remain" and the "Great War" and "American Empire" trilogies which follow it. Or indeed Harry Harrison's "Rebel in Time".

The Stars and Stripes: Fabric of the American Spirit

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Spectacular Pictoral Collection of American Parade Flags

The Stars and Stripes: Fabric of the American Spirit
J. Richard Pierce
Manufacturer: J. Richard Pierce LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Illustrated with over 150 full-color images of American flags and associated notes, ribbons, documents and other emblems, The Stars and Stripes: Fabric of the American Spirit chronicles the evolution of the flag through examples from the Pierce Collection of American Parade Flags. Photographs illustrate a wide variety of star patterns including wreath and circle patterns, double medallion, great star, diamond, pentagon, and square configurations.

Many of the flags provide a social or historical link to the past, a connection to an important event in our history or a glimpse back in time through stories related by everyday Americans. Of particular significance are flags with handwriting or overprints stamped on them and flags found with personal letters or notes that capture a specific moment or describe a special occasion, a snapshot of history so to speak. Many depict Civil War reunions, political campaigns, Fourth of July celebrations, parades honoring the return of our armed forces from war, anniversary commemorations, menus and advertising.

The Stars and Stripes: Fabric of the American Spirit brings together and recounts many stories that characterize the spirit of America and honor the flag that represents the principles on which our nation was founded. It is this sense of history, this reverence for the Stars and Stripes that embodies the feeling of Americans toward their national symbol of freedom and their hopes and dreams for the future.

Customer Reviews:

Spectacular Pictoral Collection of American Parade Flags.......2007-05-29

If you have any interest in the American flag and its variations that have existed throughout our nation's history, J. Richard Pierce's beautiful book, "The Stars and Stripes: Fabric of the American Spirit" provides an incredibly thorough collection of the vast variety of American flag configurations that have existed over the centuries. The book contains over 150 color photographs of many of the flags in the Pierce Collection of Parade Flags-flags that are rather small in size and were produced or fabricated for a very specific use or time period, such as for use to wave in a parade or for the celebration of the American Centenial in 1876. This book is probably the most complete collection of American flag variations since the publication of the Mastai book was published 1973. This book is a must have for anyone who collects American flags or for anyone interested in Americana in general. Perhaps the best use of this book is for giving it as a thoughtful gift that will renew the American spirit in anyone who receives it. I have purchased several copies to give to my children so that they may learn how beautiful and historic our national fabric is. Thank you Mr. Pierce for sharing your love of the American Spirit with us all.

The Stars and the Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the Republic to the Present

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The Stars and the Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the Republic to the Present
Boleslaw Mastai , and Marie-Louise D'Otrange Mastai
Manufacturer: William s Konecky Assoc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 1568523823

Book Description

This unprecedented book is the first to show us our national flag in all its various and surprising incarnations over two hundred years. We see it to be a profoundly moving expression of the feelings of generations of Americans about the events and spirit of our country's growth. It is based on the authors' incomparable collection of antique American flags. With 255 color plates, especially created for this book, it charts the numerous and for the most part forgotten transformations that the symbol of our national pride has undergone.

"G I Joe" ("Private Breger"): From the pages of Yank and Stars and stripes

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"G I Joe" ("Private Breger"): From the pages of Yank and Stars and stripes
David Breger
Manufacturer: Blue Ribbon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Spider-Man and Captain America: Stars, Stripes, and Spiders (Spider-Man Team Up)

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Spider-Man and Captain America: Stars, Stripes, and Spiders (Spider-Man Team Up)
Len Wein , Gil Kane , and Todd Dezago
Manufacturer: Spotlight
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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