Stars and Stripes Triumphant (Stars & Stripes Trilogy) [Paperback]

Harry Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2002 | Series: Stars & Stripes Trilogy

In "Stars and Stripes Forever", Harry Harrison began the story of the war that never was, but might so easily have happened: the war of the 1860s between the United States of America and the British Empire. It began with an ill-considered seizure of a British ship, escalated with an ill-considered letter to Abraham Lincoln, and continued with an ill-starred invasion of the territory of the USA by an incensed British government. The first modern war - with iron-clad ships, rapid-firing guns, trenches, mass armies and massive casualties, was taking place, not between the industrial northern states and the agricultural southern ones, but between the two great English-speaking nations, who happened also to be the two most powerful nations on the planet. In the stunning conclusion to this series, the Irish become involved and a most surprising ending is the culmination of the ill-fated war.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The third and final book in Nebula Award-winner Harrison's entertaining alternate history of the American Civil War (Stars & Stripes Forever; Stars & Stripes in Peril), in which the two sides reunite against a common enemy after the British Empire attempts to intervene on behalf of the South and sacks Biloxi by mistake, comes as something of a letdown. Making use of new technology, the new American command of Sherman, Lee, Grant and Jackson adapt their real-life strategies and tactics into what would be later known as blitzkrieg and deliver a defeat that the stubborn British aristocracy cannot accept. Much of the fascination of the previous entries was in how the reintegrated Army (and nation) functioned. Here, much of the Southern flavor is absent, replaced by the Northern juggernaut moving as mechanically as its components. The depiction of the British ruling classes as jingoistic bigots, and of Queen Victoria as a worthy grandmother to Kaiser Wilhelm II, was never subtle in the first two books, but here it descends to caricature, although it does remind us that our Special Relationship with the United Kingdom was by no means inevitable. If the conclusion arrives as no surprise, at least its manner will interest fans. Taken as a whole, this insightful series shows how the elements of modern warfare could have combined much earlier, and just how little the U.S. and the U.K. had in common in the 1860s.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The Civil War ended with a victory for the Union, and a newly reunited country successfully fended off a British attempt to reconquer her "colonies." The American victory against Britain led to the liberation of both Ireland and Canada. As President Lincoln visits Europe, he learns of another attempt by the British to recoup their losses by seizing American ships. The third installment of Harrison's "Stars and Stripes" trilogy (Stars and Stripes Forever; Stars and Stripes in Peril) brings this tale of war and diplomacy in the aftermath of the American Civil War to a startling conclusion. Fans of alternate history will appreciate this new look at a favorite historic period. A good choice for most libraries.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: New English Library (September 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340689226
• ISBN-13: 978-0340689226
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,669,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fizzles out, March 12, 2003

By 

Jack Lifton (Birmingham, Mi USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stars and Stripes Triumphant (Hardcover)

If you can imagine a Great Britain in 1865 where the Queen's petulant childlike behavior dominates day-to-day politics, where the British Navy and Army are totally unaware of massive troop and ship movements from North America east accross the Atlantic, where the Imperial administration and Military in London are taken completely unaware by gasoline powered (Carnot) engines moving very very heavy armored guns and vehicles and these machines are coming off of immensely heavy iron warships then you are probably ready for John Ericsson and William Parrott to invent all of the parts of the gasoline engine powered tank (engine, transmission, axles, wheels, and FUEL! while they are at the same time building staem powered warships carrying massive mortars protected by solid iron armor. I'll bet the USA ran quite a budget deficit building this invasion fleet and supplying the troops. Did I mention that there are green ELECTRIC lights on the American warships?

Add to this wooden characterizations of Sherman, Grant, Lincoln, Fox, Palmerston, Russell, and Disraeli and you have a novel that just fizzles out with America bringing "Democracy" to Great Britain.

The Irish in the story are brutally mistreated and the non-titled English are either crude or cowardly. All Americans of course are just great guys who only want to right the wrongs of the world.

I suppose that editors don't question the story telling ability of long established authors, but why was this one published?

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Anglophobe's wet-dream: a polemical review, April 20, 2003

By 

Dr Garry (Annandale, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stars and Stripes Triumphant (Hardcover)

I have read and enjoyed Mr Harrison's SF for nigh on thirty years. "Deathworld" took me through adolescence. The "Stainless Steel Rat" through youth, and the increasingly Carry-On style of the "Bill, the Galactic Hero" series even further.

But I just cannot stomach this triumvirate. The writing is wooden, but what irks me is the scenario and the politics. Please feel free to stop reading now if you are simply looking for a read.

As an Aussie, I consider myself neither Anglo-, not Amero, -phobic or -philliac.

Previous reviewers have mentioned the technological problems, and Mr Harrison's general presumption that all Americans are combinations of Rambo and Thomas Edison, whereas all Brits are like the guys from "Dumb and Dumber".

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Mr Harrison's presumptions that:

* Forty years (I'm no American scholar.. correct me if I'm wrong) of the deepest tensions and social schisms in the USA concerning slavery suddenly vaporise instantly when a few Brits get off course;

* An American invasion of Ireland suddenly reconciles 800 years of Protestant-Catholic discord and hatred;

* Americans bring democracy to the UK. In the late 1860s, American senators were no more elected than the House of Lords and the aristocracy Mr Harrison professes to despise: senators where chosen by state legislatures.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A few more negatives about this book, January 14, 2008

By 

Peter Hobson (Groton, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stars and Stripes Triumphant (Hardcover)

Some of the previous reviews have pointed out some serious problems with Stars & Stripes Triumphant. I just finished reading it, and I noted some more discrepancies.

Count Iggy could not have gone to the Royal Naval College Greenwich before the Crimean War, since it wasn't established until 1873. Moreover, it was not a place for training officer candidates (that was done at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, started in 1863). The courses taught at Greenwich were for mid to upper-grade officers, lieutenant commanders and above.

The river running through Cork is not the River Lee but the River Lea.

Ulysses S. Grant was known to his contemporaries as "Sam."

In the 1860s there were two battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, not 25. Only during the massive expansion of the British Army during the First and Second World Wars did certain regiments grow anywhere near that large.