Selected Product:
| The Guns of August
Mass Market
Author: Barbara W. Tuchman
Publisher: Presidio Press
Release Date: 2004-08-03
ISBN-10: 0345476093
ISBN-13: 9780345476098
List Price: $7.99
Average Customer Rating:
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"More dramtatic than fiction...THE GUNS OF AUGUST is a magnificent narrative--beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained....The product of painstaking and sophisticated research."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledge of her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for the first time, just how the war started, why, and why it could have been stopped but wasn't. A classic historical survey of a time and a people we all need to know more about, THE GUNS OF AUGUST will not be forgotten.
Bob Dylan should read this book
| Customer Rating: | | In a song Bob Dylan wrote "The First World War it came and it went. The reason for fighting I never did get." I was like Dylan, I never understood how WWI grew out of the assassination of Archduke Franz. Then I read The Guns of August, and I not only understood, I was amazed at the stupidity of all the governments involved. 20 Million dead from bluff, blunder, and incompetence. No wonder there was a Lost Generation. This is one of the best books of pure history without taking sides ever written. |
Good literature, mediocre history
| Customer Rating:  | First, I really enjoyed this book. I believe Tuchman did a masterful job of giving life to the people and events that led to WWI. This book is well worth reading, but only for what it is: half-history, half-literature.
This is not the place to start if you want to understand what led to WWI. The author does have a distinct anti-German bias that glosses over most of the complexities that influenced Germany's actions. Given when the book was written, this bias is understandable, but it does affect its historical value. Moreover, Serbia and the Hapsburgs are essentially footnotes in this book when in reality, they are essential for understanding the causes of the war. When you ignore Serbia and Austro-Hungary, well, all you're left with is Germany acting like a belligerent punk under the hand of the man-child Wilhelm II.
Also, Tuchman definitely prefers some individuals over others. For example, she gives Sir French pretty short-shrift in comparison to Lord Kitchener when in reality, there was more than enough incompetence to go around (not that I would have done any better than they).
I do whole-heartedly recommend this book, but only as a halfway step from history to fiction, perhaps sandwiched between A World Undone and All Quiet on the Western Front. |
Worst summer reading I ever had
| Customer Rating: | I didn't even bother to finish this book because, although i tried to read it and fell asleep on pretty much every other page, the writing was convoluted and stuffy, the "action" (was there any?) was slow, and I just couldn't bring myself to care about anything this author had to say. A unanimous vote by the AP Euro class I was forced to "read" this for took the book off the reading list for next year's class...although we would have loved to make the following classes suffer the same way we did, we simply could not bring ourselves to stuff this ridiculous book down any other poor students' throats.
Mr. M......You were a cool teacher, but I don't know if I can ever forgive you for letting this haunt my entire summer. |
Brilliant Easy to Read Narrative
| Customer Rating: | | The Guns of August is an easy to read and flowing history of the early days of World War I. The author does a great job a bringing you up to speed with the state of mind for each of the major players in the early days of the war. The book then moves more or less chronologically through the eve of Marne in great detail. I also like that the author does not take sides. For example, she presents the horrific treatment of Belgium civilians in a matter of fact way but still drives home the terribleness of those actions. The only deficiency (unless this missed it in the notes and sources) is the lack of complete translations for the large number of French phrases used in the book; some of the more obscure are translated but not all. A good English-French dictionary comes in handy. |
Classic for a Reason
| Customer Rating: | There is absolutely a reason for this book to be regarded as a classic. Actually, there are lots of reasons. Tuchman's writing is informative, yet intimate. She tells you what you need to know to understand the topic at hand then goes on to supply more information that you didn't need but adds to your appreciation. All this without the book ever bogging down, unlike the war. Possibly, a big part of this is the topic she chose to cover from WWI, the first month. That was when armies marched, counter-marched and fought instead of slogging through mud for years.
Tuchman covers the cuases for war in ways as good as any I've read. It's a hard topic, but she addresses it very well. Every topic in the book is covered well.
This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Great War. It's also a must read to get some understanding of how the folly of man makes war more horrofic, if that's possible. It's just a good read if you're looking for something for the beach. |
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