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Guns of August [Paperback]

Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 1 Jan 1920
"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.

Product details

  • Paperback: 511 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books Inc.; Ballantine Books ed edition (1 Jan 1920)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 034538623X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345386236
  • Product Dimensions: 14 x 2.6 x 21.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 535,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Barbara Wertheim Tuchman
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Product Description

About the Author

Barbara W. Tuchman achieved prominence as a historian with The Zimmermann Telegram and international fame with The Guns of August, which won the Pulitzer Prize. There followed five more books: The Proud Tower, Stilwell and the American Experience in China (also awarded the Pulitzer Prize), A Distant Mirror, Practicing History, and The March of Folly. The First Salute was Mrs. Tuchman’s last book before her death in February 1989. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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SO GORGEOUS was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
35 reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars gripping readable history 27 July 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Barbara Tuchman's account of the 30 days of August 1914 can be viewed as a prism of events before and after this pivotal month at the start of the WW1. There are many views as to whether this War was an inevitable manifestation of tottering monarchies, deadly new technology, colonial rivalry and and the still very prevalent romance and chivalry associated with War. WW1 forever debased that latter notion, but sadly did not put an end to war. Although this can be read as a stand alone piece it is better put in the perspective of it's precedent, the war itself and its aftermath. John Keegan's new study 'World War One' is highly recommended, and perhaps Clausewitz's classic study of causes and tactics 'On War'. Tuchman does not present an ideological or chauvinistic perspective. Her strength is in her objective narrative rendering, and her character insights, including the llumination of some lesser known figures who played a key roll in events. Excellent, readable history with the drama and immediacy of a novel. You'll have trouble putting it down.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This is an exceptional historical read. 18 Jun 1998
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The Guns of August is the fourth Barbara Tuchman book I have read and is a masterwork of historical writing. I learned in school that the Archduke Ferdinand was shot in Sarajevo and then all these countries went to war because they had secret treaties. Tuchman tells the real story from the opening chapter of the Funeral of Edward VII (with the array of kings and princes, such as have never been assembled since) through the incredible stupidity of the war planners (on all sides of the conflict) to the final days of the first month of the war. The personal and political and familial and military relationships are so clearly defined that the scenes described take on a vivid life. This is an excllent book, a great undertaking that has awakened me to the fact that war itself made a drastic and horrible turn in 1914 from which the world has not yet recovered. There had always been horror associated with war, despite the language of honor, but the technology changed and the tactics that made the massacre of civilians a shocking event that resonated around the world are now accepted procedures for all combatants, including US troops. The well of melancholy that lies beneath the military history is almost underplayed in Tuchman's treatise. But it is there and painfully real - we have yet to withdraw from the savagery that once humans could not imagine. This book is as relevant today as it was when it was written and as the story was when it happened.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent book 17 April 2003
By james g wiggin
Format:Paperback
Like another review I stumbled across this book having read Robert Kennedy's account of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 13 Days. JFK was reading The Guns of August at the time (it being published in 1962/63). Having read both one can see why JFK 'recommended' it. With remarkable yet accessible detail Tuchman constructs the events leading up to the outbreak of War and the chaotic first month. Where she succeeds (to my ill educated view) is in capturing the political and geopolitical issues surrounding the decisions to go to War- the Gronau's dash to include Turkey on the Axis side, the school playground posturing of the then Superpowers, the French persuading Russia to mobilise despite the latter being hopelessly ill prepared for operations. Writing about war should never be a trivialised undertaking and Tuchman triumphs in the information delivery and tone of her writing. It reads like a novel but the final pages, listing the abominable waste of life brings stark and saddening reality crashing home. I think JFK saw how possible it would have been to bring the world to war- as in 1914 and how escalation follows escalation until there is no other option available. It is fitting that the seminal BBC documentary series The Great War was, in part, inspired by this book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The best! 25 May 2005
By Kurt A. Johnson
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Rightly considered one of the greatest books on the beginning of World War I, this book won Barbara Tuchman (1912-89) her first Pulitzer Prize. Beginning with the funeral of the British King, Edward VII (1841-1910), the author unfolds European events that led to the Great War and shows how it happened and why. Containing many black-and-white pictures, the storytelling is handled in a wonderfully engrossing manner, almost reading like a novel. The story continues, with all of its horrible mistakes and miscalculations, to the Battle of the Marne, which stopped the German march to Paris.

Overall, I found this to be a great history book, certainly the best I have ever read on World War I. It's easy to see why this book is so respected. Indeed, I believe that for many generations into the future, this book will be considered a classic on that war.

So, if you are interested in the First World War, and want to read a great book on it, then I highly recommend this book to you. I give it my highest recommendations.

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 40 years on, but still evergreen 9 Oct 2001
By leirrog@wanadoo.fr
Format:Paperback
This is not a work of fiction, as described in the information. It is well worth reading as a story, albeit true. The author has a wonderful sense of the period; pen descriptions of the main characters are succinct and superb. For a detailed narrative of the first month of WW1 it is eminently readable. Well worth an investment for the student of this period.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars 1914: The Start of the Great War
Barbara Tuchman provides a vivid picture of the prelude to war in The Guns of August. She explores the leaders of the major powers and their actions years before the war. Read more
Published 7 days ago by JH
4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly relevant even after 50 years!
I bought this book because it was referenced in the film Thirteen Days and found it very hard to put it down once I started. The early chapters are very insightful. Read more
Published 1 month ago by L. Glendon
4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant summary of the period
it in the quality advertised it arrived promptly. it was a present for my daughter she is enjoying the book
Published 3 months ago by Mr. I. Swann
5.0 out of 5 stars A Sublime Audiobook
I got this without being sure I'd enjoy it. I've listened to hours of it, riveted by the account of how the First World War began. Read more
Published 19 months ago by William Cohen
5.0 out of 5 stars Guns of August
An excellent account of the opening battles of World War One. The book deserved all the praise it received in the past and is still deserving of the highest acclaim despite the 50... Read more
Published 21 months ago by quarante-deux
5.0 out of 5 stars The Guns of August
This book is a highly readable account of the beginning of World War One. Tuchman brings to life the tumultuous and tenuous state of Europe in 1914 which erupted into the "Great... Read more
Published on 19 April 2006 by abush3
5.0 out of 5 stars History written as a novel
This is a fascinating and highly readable book. Tuchman creates her characters very fully, the plot is fast moving and well structured, the scenes well drawn. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2006 by PC
5.0 out of 5 stars The best!
Rightly considered one of the greatest books on the beginning of World War I, this book won Barbara Tuchman (1912-89) her first Pulitzer Prize. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2005 by Kurt A. Johnson
3.0 out of 5 stars Neither insightful nor entertaining
I approached this book with high expectations due to the rave reviews it has received but I was disappointed. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular, awesome - THE book on the events up 1914
I read this book after AJP Taylor's "Struggle for Mastery in Europe", Edmund Taylor's "Fall of the Dynasties" and Robert Massey's "Dreadnought" - and... Read more
Published on 18 April 2002 by Jennifer Okonkwo
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