The Great Upheaval
Written by Jay Winik
Narrated by Sam Tsoutsouvas
4/5
()
About this audiobook
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 monumental revolution. But none of these remarkable events occurred in isolation. In The Great Upheaval, acclaimed historian Jay Winik masterfully illuminates how their fates combined in one extraordinary moment to change the course of civilization.
Winik brings his vast, meticulous research and narrative genius to the cold, dark battlefields and deadly clashes of ideologies that defined this age. Here is a savage world war, the toppling of a great dynasty, and an America struggling to survive at home and abroad. Here, too, is the first modern Holy War between Islam and a resurgent Christian empire. And here is the richest cast of characters ever to walk upon the world stage: Washington and Jefferson, Louis XVI and Robespierre, Catherine the Great, Adams, Napoleon, and Selim III. Exquisitely written and utterly compelling, The Great Upheaval vividly depicts an arc of revolutionary fervor stretching from Philadelphia and Paris to St. Petersburg and Cairo—with fateful results. A landmark in historical literature, Winik's gripping, epic portrait of this tumultuous decade will forever transform the way we see America's beginnings and our world.
Jay Winik
Jay Winik is the author of the New York Times bestseller April 1865. He is a senior scholar of history and public policy at the University of Maryland and a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
More audiobooks from Jay Winik
The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5April 1865: The Month That Saved America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A House Reunited: How America Survived the Civil War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to The Great Upheaval
Related audiobooks
The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brotherhood of the Revolution: How America's Founders Forged a New Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Island Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Civilization: The West and the Rest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Changed the Modern World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vienna 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51848: Year of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51944: FDR and the Year That Changed History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Republics: A Continental History of the United States 1783-1850 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Money Men: Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years' War over the American Dollar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Man: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year That Transformed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eight Days at Yalta: How Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin Shaped the Post-War World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radicalism of the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Modern History For You
In Plain Sight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Final Witness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cold War: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Einstein: His Life and Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbarians at the Gate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remembrance: Selected Correspondence of Ray Bradbury Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Great Upheaval
94 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is a great book. Fantastic mix of story telling and history. But this recording is missing last chapter and Epilogue.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Winik's book is not for sissies. It is 600 plus pages, and spans a 12 year stage with a regiment of players. I thought of calling it less a book, more an education, but Winik has sacrificed accuracy for artistic license and this disqualifies him from academic acclaim. However, this in no way distracts from the pleasure that this volume brings. John Ruskin said "Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions." And this applies to this book. His errors to the average reader are unimportant. All he is guilty of is rounding up ages, and being specific when specificity cannot be proved. Not-with-standing the above, this book will keep you riveted to the twilight years of the 18th century. It will increase your knowledge of the champions of American independence, and introduce you to Europeans who tried to emulate it, and those who tried to smother it.The book oscillates between America, Russia and France introducing the reader to the prominent figures of the time in the most interesting detail. England has a 'walk-on' part and almost closes the volume with its decimation of the French fleet at the battle of Aboukir Bay. Unfortunately the book ends at 1800 so we are denied the drubbing Napoleon got at Trafalgar and Waterloo. At the end of this book, Napoleon is still ahead on points.There have been legitimate critics of Winik's book on the grounds of inaccuracy, and that is to be regretted as if reduces the work to a flawed masterpiece. I confess that it did not distract me from enjoying the book one iota. If you are interested in history, and want to know how the American revolution influenced and incited rank and file Europeans, then I recommend that you invest $19.77 ($12.33 paperback), in this book - you will not regret it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History that reads as a novel. Taking three focal points, American Revolution, French Revolution and the Russian failed attempt into liberalization, the book weaves together the story lines. The book has a very high BPP, bodies per page, one of highest I've read in awhile.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reads really quickly, more like a novel than history, and intricately links political and philosophical thinking across America, France, and Russia to make the point that society was global even back then, though communications were slower. Drives home the connections between American and European unrest during this period and the shaping of these nations.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellently written and read it ties the seemingly disparate threads of Russian foreign policy and American culture together into the knot of French discontent and revolution...and it's reciprocal effects in turn.
While it is, unfortunately, a narrative of these three countries almost exclusively, the story goes far, if in a slightly abridged fashion, towards removing these historical discussions from the more insular nature of previous studies and placing them into the comprehensive reality of geopolitical events. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating confluence of people, ideas, and tumultuous affairs: the American colonies, revolutionary France, and Imperial Russia at the end of the 18th century.
Excellent narration and production. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reads really quickly, more like a novel than history, and intricately links political and philosophical thinking across America, France, and Russia to make the point that society was global even back then, though communications were slower. Drives home the connections between American and European unrest during this period and the shaping of these nations.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winik gives adjectives a real workout in this entertaining but hyperbolic account of the events roiling the end of the 18th Century, focused mostly on the French Revolution but also on the American Revolution and the empire building of the Russians. In long strings of clauses laden with excess verbiage, Winik recounts the “unmitigated horror” the “momentous decisions” the “quickening pulse” the “dreaded specter” the “clarion call” -– you get the idea. His clauses sometimes sound like personals ads: “incorrigibly flawed yet ironically suited,” “inspired yet quixotic,” “uncommonly brave yet psychologically frail.” Triteness is not a barrier to Winik – he has no qualms about describing “golden shores," "quickening pulses," or "words dripping with emotion”; nor about exclaiming that “behind this legend was a man” ("of fabled status"), or “it was a fateful day” (or "it was not to be"). Alliteration also has great appeal in his tour of the adjectives: “audaciously assumed”, “terrible toll,” “defiantly demanded,” “frenzied fighting.” But where he waxes most florid in his verbal outpourings is in the tales of war: “ghastly massacre,” “blood flowed like rivers,” “bestial fighting,” “crushing defeat,” “murderous enemy,” “brutally decapitated” (is there a non-brutal decapitation?). When I wasn’t rolling my eyes, for the most part I was enjoying the stories. A blow-by-blow account of the lead-up to the guillotining of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette may not be among the most important aspects of the French Revolution, but it sure makes for good drama. Likewise his account of Catherine the Great’s suppression of a peasant revolt. So I would, in fact, recommend it, although that seems incredulous, incorrigible, and inexplicable. Implacable though it may be, yet, it is inexorable.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In "The Great Upheaval," Winik's thesis is that the political events in Russia, France, and America during the time period of 1788-1800 were not isolated incidents. Rather, the political world at this time was more global than once thought, resulting in individuals playing key roles in events on both continents. For example, Winik describes Jefferson's role in both the shaping of America, as well as his support of the initial stages of the French Revolution. Other impotant historical figures discussed include Catherine, Adams, Washington, Kosciuszko, Louis XVI, Lafayette, and many others. Although Winik painstakingly recounts the events and actions of these three countries during these 12 years, at times they seem removed from one another. He writes one chapter at a time about each country, with each chapter being approximately 5 years. Thus each chapter furthers the country's storyline independent from the other countries. This method forces the reader to interconnect the storylines of the three countries on your own. It is not until the last chapter (and Epilogue) that the events in each country are directly connected within the chapter. I did appreciate how Winik showed that the same negative revolutionary ideas that commanded the French Revolution were also at times evident in America and Russia as well. The only reason that America and Russia did not share the same fateful fate as the French was a result of leadership. Overall, I thought it was a fascinating read, especially if you are interested in the background behind the great events of the late 18th century. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like a new perspective on this time period as well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winik ties together the events in early US history, the French Revolution and the initially liberal but eventually reactionary government of Catherine the Great. He does a good job of showing how interrelated all of these events were and that the world at that time was more "global" than you might think. A little bit of US cheer leading(certainly a bigger fan of Hamilton than I am), but when you consider the outcomes of the 3 systems it is hard to argue that it isn't mostly deserved.