<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<GoodreadsResponse>
	<Request>
		<authentication>false</authentication>
		    <method><![CDATA[]]></method>
	</Request>
	
<book>
  <id>192955</id>
  <title><![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]></title>
  <isbn><![CDATA[0345405013]]></isbn>
  <isbn13><![CDATA[9780345405012]]></isbn13>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <description><![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]></description>
  <work>
  <best_book_id type="integer">192955</best_book_id>
  <books_count type="integer">16</books_count>
  <desc_user_id type="integer" nil="true"></desc_user_id>
  <id type="integer">1649174</id>
  <media_type>book</media_type>
  <original_language_id type="integer" nil="true"></original_language_id>
  <original_publication_day type="integer" nil="true"></original_publication_day>
  <original_publication_month type="integer" nil="true"></original_publication_month>
  <original_publication_year type="integer">1966</original_publication_year>
  <original_title>The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914</original_title>
  <rating_dist>total:343|5:117|4:153|3:64|2:9|1:0|</rating_dist>
  <ratings_count type="integer">343</ratings_count>
  <ratings_sum type="integer">1407</ratings_sum>
  <reviews_count type="integer">561</reviews_count>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">40</text_reviews_count>
</work>

  <average_rating><![CDATA[4.10]]></average_rating>
  <ratings_count><![CDATA[325]]></ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count><![CDATA[35]]></text_reviews_count>
  
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914]]></link>
  <authors>
    <author>
    <id>137261</id>
        <name><![CDATA[Barbara W. Tuchman]]></name>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1229046503p5/137261.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1229046503p2/137261.jpg]]></small_image_url>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/137261.Barbara_W_Tuchman]]></link>
    <average_rating>4.13</average_rating>
    <ratings_count>3890</ratings_count>
    <text_reviews_count>534</text_reviews_count>
  </author>
  </authors>
    <reviews start="1" end="20" total="561">
      <review>
  <id>39936718</id>
    <user>
    <id>619930</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Wes]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chicago, IL]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/619930-wes]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1201618784p3/619930.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1201618784p2/619930.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.11</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>325</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Dec 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Dec 12 06:38:35 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Dec 12 07:57:48 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Engaging history of white people from late 19th century to WWI. Written by American journalist living in U.K. and published in 1966, book purports to be &quot;A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914&quot; -- which it ain't by a damn sight -- and works as a pretty good oil painting of the U...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39936718">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39936718]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39936718]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>7580966</id>
    <user>
    <id>423269</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Andrew]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chicago, IL]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/423269-andrew]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1257536660p3/423269.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1257536660p2/423269.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Wed Feb 27 17:44:16 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Oct 11 09:26:21 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Nov 15 11:18:26 -0800 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Things I've read around noon, 15 November pp. 239-246:<br/><br/>&quot;The last proposed agreement on the principle of arbitration and the working out of procedures. Topics 2, 3, and 4 dealt with prohibition or restriction of new types of weapons and predicted means of warfare, such as submarines, ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7580966">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7580966]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7580966]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>53511887</id>
    <user>
    <id>1758594</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Patrick]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Santa Fe, NM]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1758594-patrick-gibson]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1228068580p3/1758594.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1228068580p2/1758594.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
            <shelf name="history" />
        <shelf name="truth_sort-of" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[history aficionados ]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[NPR, of course]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Apr 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Apr 21 15:54:24 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Apr 21 15:56:39 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count>1</read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[1850 is my favorite year. What? You don’t have a favorite year? Sure you do. It is the one you picked during the late night drunken college game of ‘What If You Could Go Back in Time Where and When Would You Go?’ I could waver a little on my date. 1849 or 1851 would be all right. And I’d hav...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53511887">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53511887]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53511887]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>44340990</id>
    <user>
    <id>1058939</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Diane]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1058939-diane]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-F-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-F-50x66.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Jan 25 18:07:01 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Jan 25 18:12:11 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This excellent history of the years leading up to World War I looks at the underlying cultural changes that were occuring at the time.  The books provides descriptions of both the haves and have-nots of the era, as well as probing the ways in which those at the bottom of the social scale were challe...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44340990">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44340990]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44340990]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>78503079</id>
    <user>
    <id>1915800</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Kent]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1915800-kent]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1246504240p3/1915800.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1246504240p2/1915800.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Dec 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Nov 20 21:18:50 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Dec 17 16:44:51 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I'm hesitating between a simple recommendation: &quot;This was tremendous. Go forth and read ye likewise,&quot; and a more voluminous splatter of opinions and unhelpful comments.<br/><br/>No, actually, I'm not hesitating. The choice is simple.<br/><br/>Tuchman's object is to reveal the last deca...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78503079">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78503079]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78503079]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>32979556</id>
    <user>
    <id>1533140</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Cera]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1533140-cera]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1221547260p3/1533140.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1221547260p2/1533140.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Sep 15 22:16:06 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Sep 24 17:04:04 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count>1</read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Tuchman is rightfully famous as a historian, but I found this book disappointing.  It's a sound scholarly look at the period 1890-1914, focusing on the social movements within the powerful European nations &amp; the United States that, according to Tuchman, set the stage for the outbreak of WWI.  Unfort...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32979556">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32979556]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32979556]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>16351372</id>
    <user>
    <id>695451</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Robertisenberg]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/695451-robertisenberg]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1218127415p3/695451.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1218127415p2/695451.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Feb 25 16:19:01 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Feb 25 16:35:31 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Ever wary of the Edwardians, I knew that Barbara Tuchman could enliven this dreary industrial period. And my, did she ever: The story of English nobility, mad anarchists, high-minded Socialists and the throbbing heart of impending war all become glaring signs of the world's most pointless and catast...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16351372">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16351372]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16351372]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>76855767</id>
    <user>
    <id>2584417</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Sarah]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2584417-sarah]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-F-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-F-50x66.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">234650</id>
  <isbn>0241908159</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780241908150</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">3</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait Of The World Before The War, 1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1208236783m/234650.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1208236783s/234650.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/234650.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_Of_The_World_Before_The_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.00</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>9</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 is a 1966 book by Barbara Tuchman, collecting essays she had published in various periodicals during the mid 1960s. Each chapter deals with a different country, theme, and time (although all relate to the approximately 25 years preceding World War I). The first and last chapters are about British government in 1890 and 1910, respectively; one chapter is dedicated to the Dreyfus Affair in France; and another is nominally about the Wilhelmine politics of late 19th-century Germany, but is really about musik und kultur in Deutschland.<br/><br/>]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Nov 05 16:24:04 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Nov 09 06:05:59 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is a compelling account of the state of the world before World War I. There are chapters on England, the Anarchist movement, the United States, France, the Hague peace conferences, Germany, another on England, and the Socialist movement. The chapters cover the important issues and personalities...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76855767">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76855767]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76855767]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>74144310</id>
    <user>
    <id>1662632</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Richard]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Francisco, CA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1662632-richard]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1260582721p3/1662632.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1260582721p2/1662632.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
            <shelf name="history" />
        <shelf name="to-read" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[Those that wish to not repeat history]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Oct 11 01:01:01 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Oct 11 01:06:35 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[<em>Haven't rad any Tuchman in years, and somehow skipped this one. But </em>Melvyn Bragg<em> just did <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20091008.shtml">a show on <strong>The Dreyfuss Affair</strong></a> and I was reminded Tuchman was the one that introduced me to this fascinating and peculiar historical tale.</em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74144310">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74144310]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74144310]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>72453799</id>
    <user>
    <id>2149642</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Daniel]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2149642-daniel]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1237689054p3/2149642.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1237689054p2/2149642.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Sep 25 09:41:49 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Sep 25 09:44:00 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[An enjoyable overview of the western world in the decades leading up to World War I. Ms. Tuchman paints with broad strokes - you're not getting a very detailed history, but you are getting a feel for the issues, people, and culture of this period.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72453799]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72453799]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>20243767</id>
    <user>
    <id>1082647</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Bythedeed]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1082647-bythedeed]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1208206001p3/1082647.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1208206001p2/1082647.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
            <shelf name="books-i-read-a-chunk-of" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Apr 15 15:04:04 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Apr 15 15:04:04 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I've only read the section about the anarchists, which I think was called &quot;The Idea.&quot; It's the best overview of the Classical Era of Anarchism I've ever come across, and I recommend it to those interested in trying to get a basic feel for anarchism around 1890-1914. Buchman's surprising si...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20243767">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20243767]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20243767]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>46455163</id>
    <user>
    <id>1865547</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Paul]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1865547-paul]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-M-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Feb 15 16:41:38 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Feb 15 16:43:08 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I don't know why, but I have always found this period of time fascinating.  Imperialists, anarchists, industrialists all partying right before the bonfire that would be WWI.  Such a great book.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46455163]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46455163]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>22995694</id>
    <user>
    <id>350218</id>
    <name><![CDATA[booklady]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Oklahoma City, OK]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/350218-booklady]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1212440813p3/350218.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1212440813p2/350218.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
            <shelf name="2001" />
        <shelf name="history" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[amateur historians]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[Folio Society]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Mar 04 00:00:00 -0800 2001</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon May 26 14:22:19 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon May 26 14:31:39 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Folio Society sold this as part of a combined set with <em>Guns of August</em> (recently reviewed) which is why I bought it.  I read it immediately following GoA but should have read it first, only I didn't know that at the time--over seven years ago.  <br/><br/><em>The Proud Tower</em> gives the background for the...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22995694">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22995694]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22995694]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>58855171</id>
    <user>
    <id>1415047</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Whitaker]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Singapore]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1415047-whitaker]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1259055127p3/1415047.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1259055127p2/1415047.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
            <shelf name="thinking-about-it" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Jun 08 08:32:18 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Dec 03 10:12:22 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/15/AR2009031502277_pf.html">The Washington Post</a>: &quot;The Proud Tower is not a narrative but a collection of eight essays, some of which had appeared previously, in briefer form, in various magazines. ... In muscular, vivid prose, she portrays a world in transition, &quot;the culmination of a century of the most accelerated r...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58855171">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58855171]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58855171]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>9623791</id>
    <user>
    <id>43094</id>
    <name><![CDATA[paris]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/43094-paris]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1189560550p3/43094.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1189560550p2/43094.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">731155</id>
  <isbn>0786177977</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780786177974</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">1</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914, Library Edition]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177775327m/731155.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177775327s/731155.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/731155.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914_Library_Edition</link>
  <average_rating>3.50</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>2</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
            <shelf name="non-fiction" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[tout]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Jul 19 14:16:23 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Nov 27 16:38:15 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Jul 19 14:16:23 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[oh, i'm really enjoying this book.<br/><br/>first of all, aristocrats are always good for a laugh. then, she delves into the social movements. an-archy being the first terrific one of the turn of the 20th century.<br/><br/>i wish someone would write a book about it's author, Barbara Tuchman! it ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9623791">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9623791]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9623791]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>44121445</id>
    <user>
    <id>1948339</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Danus]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Hyde Park, NY]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1948339-danus-bartonicus]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-U-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
            <shelf name="currently-reading" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri Jan 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Jan 23 18:29:34 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Jan 23 18:30:15 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[A very solid and informative look at the world in the 20 years or so leading up to WWI.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44121445]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44121445]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>21897505</id>
    <user>
    <id>1136594</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Robert]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Cordova, TN]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1136594-robert]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-M-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 1995</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu May 08 19:13:01 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu May 08 19:15:31 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[John le Carre selected this as the most important book of the 20th century on somebody's list.  That's probably going much too far but it is an informative account, from a far left perspective, of Western powers, including the U.S., and the social movements that inhabited them at the turn of the sta...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21897505">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21897505]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21897505]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>6080468</id>
    <user>
    <id>369955</id>
    <name><![CDATA[P.]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Madison, WI]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/369955-p]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-M-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
            <shelf name="on-hold" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Sep 11 23:40:53 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Dec 15 16:09:19 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[A wonderful companion volume to &quot;The Guns of August&quot; even if you read them out of chronological order.  I was consistently reminded of the phrase &quot;there is nothing new under the sun&quot; while reading about political firestorms such as l'Affaire Dreyfuss, various de-armament conferen...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6080468">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6080468]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6080468]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>42554075</id>
    <user>
    <id>739487</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Oldesq]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/739487-oldesq]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1221329928p3/739487.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1221329928p2/739487.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Jan 29 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Jan 10 06:54:47 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Jan 29 08:22:46 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[In her wonderful chatty way, Tuchman lays out in depth stories of the various factions involved in the years before WWI]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42554075]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42554075]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>68692684</id>
    <user>
    <id>260049</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Melissa]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Washington, DC]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/260049-melissa]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-F-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
    <small_image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-F-50x66.jpg]]></small_image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">192955</id>
  <isbn>0345405013</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345405012</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">35</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War,  1890-1914]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192955.The_Proud_Tower_A_Portrait_of_the_World_Before_the_War_1890_1914</link>
  <average_rating>4.10</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>343</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[&quot;The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.&quot;<br/>--Barbara W. Tuchman<br/>The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.<br/>In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.<br/>&quot;Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.&quot;<br/>--The New York Times<br/>&quot;Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord.&quot;<br/>--Time]]>
  </description>
  <published>1966</published>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Aug 24 10:11:26 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Sep 21 18:10:36 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Contrary to any expectations I had, this book was fantastic.  It was an absorbing look at the monumental changes taking place throughout the Western world 100 years ago.  Oddly enough, I couldn't put it down.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68692684]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68692684]]></link>
</review>
    </reviews>
  <popular_shelves>
          <shelf name="to-read" />
          <shelf name="history" />
          <shelf name="currently-reading" />
          <shelf name="non-fiction" />
          <shelf name="nonfiction" />
          <shelf name="diplomacy" />
          <shelf name="europe" />
          <shelf name="politics" />
      </popular_shelves>
  <book_links>
    <book_link>
  <id>8</id>
  <name><![CDATA[WorldCat]]></name>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=192955</link>
</book_link>
  </book_links>
</book>
</GoodreadsResponse>