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Barbara Wertheim Tuchman
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Barbara W. Tuchman: The Guns of August & The Proud Tower (Library of America) Hardcover – March 1, 2012

by Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Margaret MacMillan (Editor)
4.7 out of 5 stars 121 ratings
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Writing with a clarity, grace, and novelistic sweep rare among historians, Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) distilled the complex interplay of personalities and events into gripping narratives that fuse rigorous scholarship with elegant literary art. An astute portraitist, she brilliantly laid bare the all-too-human failures of leaders subject to the pull of historical currents and prone, often tragically, to the ingrained biases of culture and temperament. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning best seller The Guns of August (1962) offers a majestic orchestration of the diplomatic and military history of the crucial first weeks of World War I. Tuchman's observations about the irrational escalation of conflict made a deep impression on President John F. Kennedy and influenced his actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis; fifty years later, The Guns of August remains an exemplary study of events propelled headlong by their own internal logic and momentum. Some of Tuchman's finest writing is contained in her following book, The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World before the War, 1890-1914 (1966), a fascinating kaleidoscope of eight precisely drawn essays on subjects ranging from international socialism and anarchism to the Dreyfus Affair in France and the birth of American imperialism that collectively set the stage for the cataclysm of 1914. Presented in one volume for the first time and released to mark Tuchman's centennial year and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Guns of August, here is a vivid, indelible panorama of an epoch in transition.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
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  1. Print length
    1264 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Library of America
  4. Publication date
    March 1, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 1.7 x 8.1 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    159853145X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1598531459
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

MARGARET MacMILLAN, editor, is the author of Paris 1919 (winner of the Duff Cooper Prize, the Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction, the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History, the Governor-General's award for nonfiction, and a New York Times best book of the year), Nixon and Mao, and Women of the Raj. A past provost of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, MacMillan is the warden of St. Antony's College at Oxford University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Library of America; Second Printing (so stated) edition (March 1, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1264 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159853145X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1598531459
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.95 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.7 x 8.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 121 ratings

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Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

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Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (/ˈtʌkmən/; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Guns of August (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World War I, and Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971), a biography of General Joseph Stilwell.

Tuchman focused on writing popular history.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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4.7 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Elenchus
    5.0 out of 5 stars Still useful after all these years
    Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Yeah, these works were written in the 20th century, but that only makes them more interesting. Insights may change over time, but not all of the old insights are invalidated by metahistorical developments. Tuchman writes beautifully and knows how to research andr tell a story.

    I bought this volume as a gift for a well-read European friend whose take on the Great War is unlike most Americans'. She is quite pleased: apparently she's learning a lot about a fundamentally US point of view but has also found some significant historical details that she didn't know.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • N. Helton
    5.0 out of 5 stars For WWI history buffs and lovers of great writing...
    Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    In my opinion, Barbara Tuchman is a great historian and if possible, and even greater writer. I read this book because 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Great War in Europe that would all too soon engulf my own country.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Lannie Hughes
    5.0 out of 5 stars A classic on WWI.
    Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Tuchman's tome is a detailed history of political and military events in Western Europe centered around WWI.

    This is a must read for anyone interested in WWI and how the world changed as a result of it.
    One person found this helpful
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  • JessMoore
    5.0 out of 5 stars As always, Tuchman delivers the details in wonderfully readable style
    Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    No one writes about warfare better than Barbara Tuchman. You can hear the clatter and smell the gunpowder.
    Only one criticism -- not against her, but against the publisher: The two books are bound the order she wrote them. Or, at least, in the order they originally were published. But ... the second book really is about the period of time leading up to WWI.
    When I realized the second book described a time period before the first, I read the second book first.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Alex Y.
    5.0 out of 5 stars ... my son but read it myself also with a great interest. I leant many interesting and little known ...
    Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I bought the book for my son but read it myself also with a great interest. I leant many interesting and little known facts about politics in a pre-war period and during first month of the Great War. Author tells the story in engaging way, the chapters about battles of Belgium and German invasion into France contain vivid description of war horrors as if through the eyes of witness.
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  • JB1976
    5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible
    Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I have three copies of this book (one a first edition, first printing) and give it as gifts to friends I think would enjoy it. Tuchman's 'The Guns of August' and 'A Distant Mirror' are two books most definitely in my top 10 all time favorite reads. I've three copies of 'A Distant Mirror' as well (also, one is a 1st ed. 1st printing).
    5 people found this helpful
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  • PC
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Guns and the Proud
    Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I am an admirer of Barbara Tuchman's books and this book, as her others, is most intensively researched and so well written. I gave it four stars not five because this book is so full that it is not easy to read. I do not intend this as a criticism of the book, but more a reflexion of the appetite of the general reader for masses of information. If this is what you want, then take it as a five star and revel in the story of human foibles and folly that leads to war.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Guns of August
    Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2018
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    Very good book on WW1, great addition to my military history collection.
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  • Jack Leron
    5.0 out of 5 stars Le grand livre de la Grande Guerre
    Reviewed in France on April 20, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Paru en 1962, « The Guns of August » reste un des livres les plus fascinants sur le déclenchement et le premier mois de la Grande Guerre. Fondé sur un incroyable travail de recherche dans les différentes sources disponibles (archives nationales, militaires, fonds privés, correspondance...) Barbara Tuchman nous fait vivre pas à pas l'enchainement des événements ayant mené à un conflit qui a fait dix-huit millions de morts (militaires et civils).
    Nous sommes tour à tour à Berlin dans l'intimité du Kaiser et de ses généraux, à Paris avec Joffre, Foch et tout leur état-major, à Londres avec Lord Balfour et son Premier Lord de l'Amirauté (Winston Churchill), à Vienne et dans les différentes ambassades des futurs belligérants. Nous prenons connaissance des décisions et réactions des uns et des autres, de l’inexorable engrenage qui va déchainer les armées des principaux pays d’Europe et les précipiter dans le cataclysme que l'on connaît.
    Quand le conflit éclate, nous suivons sur le terrain le déroulement des combats, l'héroïsme du Roi des Belges et de son peuple, l'implacable détermination de Guillaume II, les décisions incertaines des Français, les tergiversations des Britanniques, pendant tout le mois d'août 1914, jusqu'au « miracle » de la Bataille de la Marne début septembre.
    Ce livre formidablement écrit (un des livres préférés de John Fitzgerald Kennedy) est à mon avis ce qu'on peut lire de mieux sur le commencement de la Première Guerre mondiale : le plus documenté, le plus éclairant et le plus captivant.
    Le fait qu'il ne soit pas disponible actuellement en traduction française est un scandale, l'année du centenaire de la Grande Guerre.
    P.S. "The Proud Tower" expose l'état des différents pays d'Europe à la veille du conflit. Ce texte n'est hélas pas aussi captivant que "The Guns of August", mais celui-ci vaut à lui seul l'achat de ce volume à l'édition très soignée.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A classic by any measure
    Reviewed in Canada on September 19, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    The author has long departed, but her work lives on, to the delight of historians worldwide. Great books in a nice package . Too bad that they are out of print . I had to pay a premium for this item , but it’s simply an example of the law governing supply and demand .
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  • Mogens Jensen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Two books in one
    Reviewed in Germany on April 10, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    A standard reference book.
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  • tempest
    5.0 out of 5 stars splendid.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    But don't miss also Margaret Macmillan. Interesting , two women who write the best books on the first world war
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  • Pierpaolo Romanelli
    5.0 out of 5 stars The guns of august
    Reviewed in Italy on June 15, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    La Tuchman è uno dei migliori studiosi di storia che io conosca. A parte la precisione nei fatti riportati, sono i commenti ad essere ancora più apprezzabili. A questo si aggiunga un inglese impeccabile da manuale Oxford, non quelle robaccie a cui vorrebbero abituarci gli storici moderni. Interessanta paragonare con la lettura di "Agosto 1914" di Solgenitsin
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