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Guns of August (Paperback)

by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books Inc.; Ballantine Books ed edition (1 Jan 1920)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 034538623X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345386236
  • Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.7 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 293,896 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Synopsis

A definitive Pulitzer Prize-winning recreation of the powderkeg that was Europe during the crucial first thirty days of World War I traces the actions of statesmen and patriots alike in Berlin, London, St. Petersburg, and Paris. Reprint.

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Customer Reviews

30 Reviews
5 star:
 (24)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This is an exceptional historical read., 18 Jun 1998
By A Customer
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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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 40 years on, but still evergreen, 9 Oct 2001
This review is from: The Guns of August (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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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent book, 17 April 2003
This review is from: The Guns of August (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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

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

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 25 May 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 J. C. Okonkwo

5.0 out of 5 stars The best insight of the psychology for winning or defeat.
Barbara does a superb job linking the realities of the war with the psychological aspects behind the Kaiser and France decisions. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2001 by Milton Bertin Jones

4.0 out of 5 stars For anyone who is passionate about history
I picked out "The Guns of August" because I felt I needed to learn more about our first world war. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading !!!
The first month of WW I is vividly recreated here, and explains why the great nations put themselves in a mortal stalemate that was to last four years. Read more
Published on 27 Jul 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars gripping readable history
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. Read more
Published on 27 Jul 1999

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