Includes index.

"A discursive, knowing account of two of the nineteenth century's most harrowing and consequential struggles—the 1857 uprising against the British rule in India and the battle over slavery in the United States of America. Luckily, Rajmohan Gandhi understands both worlds, and the result is a sure-handed, idiosyncratic delight."—Geoffrey C. Ward, award-winning biographer of Franklin D. Roosevelt and co-author ofThe Civil War

Two wars––the 1857 Revolt in India and the American Civil War—seemingly fought for very different reasons, occurred at opposite ends of the globe in the middle of the nineteenth century. But they were both fought in a world still dominated by Great Britain, and the battle cry in both conflicts was freedom.

Rajmohan Gandhi brings the drama of both wars to one stage inA Tale of Two Revolts. He deftly reconstructs events from the point of view of William Howard Russell—an Irishman who was also perhaps the world's first war correspondent—and uncovers significant connections between the histories of the United States, Britain, and India. The result is a tale of two revolts, three countries, and one century. Into this fascinating story Gandhi weaves the choices of three towering figures of world history—Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy, and Abraham Lincoln—to show the continuities between the nineteenth century and the world we live in today.

Rajmohan Gandhi is a research professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a former parliamentarian in India; and the author of the award-winning historyGandhi, The Man, His People and The Empire. He is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.