The Guns of August / The Proud Tower
by Barbara Tuchman
The Coming of the Great War (Collections and Selections — 1-2)
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The Guns of August (1962), a riveting account of the outbreak of World War I and the weeks of fighting leading up to the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914. Tuchman dramatizes the diplomatic debacles that precipitated the war and the intransigence of the German and French armies as they dogmatically adhered to their battle plans, with disastrous consequences. Interwoven with her vivid re-creation of the German march through Belgium into France and the fierce fighting on the Eastern show more Front are astute characterizations of the conflict's key military and political leaders, among them French General Joseph Joffre, German Kaiser Wilhelm II, and British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. The Guns of August can also be read as a cautionary study in the perils of brinksmanship, and Tuchman's searching observations about the irrational escalation of conflict among states made a deep impression on President John F. Kennedy, who famously drew on the book for insight during the Cuban Missile Crisis."--Dust jacket flap. "The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (1966). [Tuchman] brings to life the disparate worlds of the self-satisfied English aristocracy and the miserable poor whose conditions gave rise to international anarchism; revisits the national madness of the Dreyfus Affair in France; considers the naiveté and cynicism of the varied participants in the international peace conferences at The Hague; mounts a dazzling foray into cultural criticism with a meditation on the operas of Richard Strauss; and creates unforgettable portraits of such political titans as Thomas B. Reed, longtime Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and French Socialist leader Jean Jaurès. Honoring the historian's ideal to envision life 'as it really was, ' Tuchman paints a fin-de-siècle world 'bursting with new tensions and accumulated energies.'"--Dust jacket flap. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
In this LOA volume, Barbara Tuchman's "The Proud Tower" & "The Guns of August" are contained here. History students studying the world leading up to the start of World War I will find Tuchman's work a solid understanding of how Europe failed to recognize the serious ramifications of ignoring warning signs that led to the horrific butchery of war.
excellent well written detailed exposition of the the first month of WWI, and the second book is an excellent portrait of the world leading up to WWI.
I learned much about the beginnings of WWI.
Diesmal ein Klassiker zum Thema #WW1 The Guns of August - handelt leider nicht nur vom August
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/the-guns-of-august-barbara-tuchman/
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/the-guns-of-august-barbara-tuchman/
Apr 28, 2014German
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World War I books
32 works; 6 members
Author Information
28+ Works 29,705 Members
Barbara W. Tuchman achieved prominence as a historian with The Zimmermann Telegram, and international fame with The Guns of August--a huge bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. There followed other successes, including The Proud Tower, Stilwell and the American Experience in China (also awarded the Pulitzer Prize), A Distant Mirror, The show more March of Folly, and The First Salute. show less
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Library of America (222)
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- Canonical title
- The Guns of August / The Proud Tower
- Alternate titles
- The Coming of the Great War : The Proud Tower and The Guns of August
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Statistics
- Members
- 339
- Popularity
- 92,951
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.16)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 9
