The first novel of an alternate-history trilogy in which the reunited Civil War-era America ends up conquering Ireland and, eventually, Great Britain. In the first book, Great Britain declares war on a U.S. divided by the Civil War, and the American North and South must join forces to repel the British invasion. Lots of military action, especially Naval (the Monitor and the Merrimack), and plenty of historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and John Stuart Mill.