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The Guns of August

by Barbara W. Tuchman

4.22 · rating details · 4,374 ratings · 401 reviews

"More dramatic than fiction...THE GUNS OF AUGUST is a magnificent narrative--beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained....The product of painstaking and sophisticated research."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl War I. With at...more

Paperback, 544 pages

Published June 6th 1996 by Ballantine Books (first published 1962)

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Aug 15, 2010

Paul rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history-will-teach-us-nothing

Well, how d'you do, Private Willie McBride, First Class - do you mind if I sit down down here by your graveside? It's so nice to rest for awhile in the warm summer sun... I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done in. Well. So, Willie - I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen when you joined the glorious fallen. 1916 - a long time ago now. Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean. But Private Willie McBride, it could have been slow and obscene. Let's not think of that. And...moreWell, how d'you do, Private Willie McBride, First Class - do you mind if I sit down down here by your graveside? It's so nice to rest for awhile in the warm summer sun... I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done in. Well. So, Willie - I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen when you joined the glorious fallen. 1916 - a long time ago now. Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean. But Private Willie McBride, it could have been slow and obscene. Let's not think of that. And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind? In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined? And, though you died back in 1916, to that loyal heart you'd be forever nineteen. Or some bollocks like that. That's what they say, isn't it. Sorry to have to tell you but you're probably a stranger, without even a name, peering out from some forgotten glass pane, in an old photograph, in a drawer, torn and tattered and stained, or fading to yellow in a brown leather frame. Well, take a look around now. It's a beautiful day. The sun's shining down on these green fields of France. Feel that, Willie? No, I suppose you don't. The warm wind blows gently, and look, the red poppies are dancing just like they're supposed to. The trenches have all gone, all ploughed under. It's a lovely place now. There's no gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now. But I suppose here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land - see how many white crosses there are - well, I couldn't count them all. But at least you're not alone, Willie, eh? There was umpteen thousands like you. But you know I can't help but wonder now, Private Willie McBride, First Class - do all those who lie here know why they died? I mean, did you really believe that your war would end wars? Because that's what they said. You'll remember that. Because, you know, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame, the killing, the dying, it was all done in vain, Willie. It all happened again. And again, and again, and again, and again. Anyway, that's enough from me. I'll bid you good day. I've got another five miles to go. Thanks for your time.

(with many apologies to Eric Bogle and his great song The Green Fields of France)(less)

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Sep 16, 2011

Clark Zlotchew rated it

· review of another edition

As always, Barbara W. Tuchman delves deeply into the historical subject matter. This book is about the First World War, its causes, the conduct of it, and the results. I see that what I've just written in the preceding sentence doesn't sound inviting; it comes off as dry and uninteresting. But this book is anything but that. It is actually exciting in its description of the progress of the war, and the various armies. It is also fascinating to burrow into the causes and the intrigue involved...more

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Sep 26, 2008

John rated it

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Barbara Tuchman did not have a PHD, “It’s what saved me, I think” she said, believing that academic life can stultify imagination, stifle enthusiasm and deaden prose style. After all, Herodotus, Thucydides, Gibbon, Mac Cauley and Parkman did not have PhD’s.” Her dealings with the press and critics were cautious and in their reviews of this book described her as a fifty-year-old housewife, a mother of three daughters and the spouse of a prominent New York physician. More succinctly, how could she...moreBarbara Tuchman did not have a PHD, “It’s what saved me, I think” she said, believing that academic life can stultify imagination, stifle enthusiasm and deaden prose style. After all, Herodotus, Thucydides, Gibbon, Mac Cauley and Parkman did not have PhD’s.” Her dealings with the press and critics were cautious and in their reviews of this book described her as a fifty-year-old housewife, a mother of three daughters and the spouse of a prominent New York physician. More succinctly, how could she have written this book? Well, she did and won the Pulitzer Prize along the way plus it was an instant and overwhelming success. Huh! Tells us something about the press doesn’t it?

This is a magnificent Pulitzer Prize Winning Classic (She has won two) that in the first several chapters successfully portrays the fascinating diplomatic history leading to WW I. The remaining chapters are a thorough and detailed account of troop movements, battles and leaders that cover not the entire war but only the first month of the war. Tuchman makes several references to previous national conflagrations and various earlier attempts to prevent German hegemony on the continent and it made me wonder; can we ever proceed differently and avoid these continuous wars? As fortune would have it though, “The War to end all wars” or “The Great War” was shortly and dutifully followed by a bigger war, WW II. An interesting side note here was that it took Mrs. Tuchman a full day, eight hours to compose the first paragraph of this book. That certainly gives solace to other thoughtful and slow writers.

I was taken aback and learned of the inaction and reserve of the British Army at this extremely critical time, which by the way continued long into the conflict, because I had observed “The Last Post” at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, (pronounced eepers) Belgium in 1993. The city of Ypres wished to express their gratitude to the British Commonwealth soldiers who died for Belgium freedom and hence conduct “The Last Post” – a solemn bugle call similar to our “Taps” – every day at 8 pm at the Menin Gate. This observance has gone on continuously since 1928 except during the Nazi occupation in WW II. So this initial British reticence to engage, bordering on incompetence and cowardice when those around them were in full fight, was thankfully in strong contrast to how they later performed as evidenced by the Menin Gate Memorial.

Admittedly, I did find some of the detail of the troop movements etc a little overdone but it would be perfect for a student of such maneuvers. Overall, this was a wonderful book and one that had too long been ensconced on the dusty shelf of my brain. After all, it was first published when John Glenn was still trying to be the first American to orbit the globe and accordingly; I had then marked it as one to read.

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Mar 15, 2009

Silvana rated it

Shelves: military-espionage, nonfiction, own, top-20, history, favorites

The Guns of August is the best researched book I’ve ever read so far with such poised and skillful narrative style. Tuchman managed to entertain her readers with vivid, incredible details about the prelude to the first thirty days of World War I. She never cease in captivating our minds with epic tales of bravery, cowardice and indecisiveness.

Did I say “entertain”? Ah indeed, this book is indubitably a remarkable form of entertainment. Battles, maneuvers, and actions in the field pl...moreThe Guns of August is the best researched book I’ve ever read so far with such poised and skillful narrative style. Tuchman managed to entertain her readers with vivid, incredible details about the prelude to the first thirty days of World War I. She never cease in captivating our minds with epic tales of bravery, cowardice and indecisiveness.

Did I say “entertain”? Ah indeed, this book is indubitably a remarkable form of entertainment. Battles, maneuvers, and actions in the field plus debates (internal and external) outside the field are told with great pace, well-structured and easy to understand. Even someone with pathetic sense of direction like yours truly could have a grasp on what happened without having to consult a map for every paragraph.

The book itself is divided into three parts: “Plans” (war preparation by the main actors: Germany, France, Britain and Russia), “Outbreak” and of course the most stirring part, “Battle”. It amazed me when I read the inanity and misjudgment by commanders in chief, field marshalls, generals and politicians, causing all the gratuitous calamities. I think I rolled my eyes lots of times or simply sighed with frustration when reading the accounts of Germans’ over-optimism, the Russians’ unpreparedness, the Frenchs’ over-confidence and the British’ reluctance. However, they’re human after all, right? Errare humane est.

The characters (historical figures) are unforgettable, especially the commanders such as Joffre, Foch, Gallieni, Moltke, Kluck, Samsonov, and the most annoying one, Sir John French, the British Field Marshall. Their thoughts, actions and interactions – which had got to be compiled meticulously and painstakingly from various memoirs and other sources – are making me feel as if I was reading a novel, of course without all the dramatization.

I applaud Tuchman for this superb and extraordinary work of literature which gave me a very real perspective on one of the greatest debacles in human history. The Guns of August truly deserves all the praises as a true military classic.

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Aug 28, 2008

Gail rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, own

I don't like technical books about military maneuvers--all that blather about Colonel Blimp, General von Bomb-them-all, and Prince Icantmakeupmymind, and the 5th Army Group attacks the XVI Corps on the right salient---yawn...
Welcome to a book that makes all this nearly understandable.

Tuchman gives a great picture of the men who made the fatal errors of judgement which led to the four years of hell known as WW I and then resulted in, twenty years later, the even worse agony kno...more

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Jan 02, 2008

Gene rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Written by consummate historian Barbara Tuchman in 1962, the Guns of August is, without exaggeration, one of the most significant works of history ever written. It focuses entirely on the run up to mankind’s greatest disaster, the First World War, and describes in elegant, often humorous, and always painstaking detail how exactly Europe, at the height of its power at the turn of the century, slid so quickly into a debacle that would fundamentally define its history for the next century.

...moreWritten by consummate historian Barbara Tuchman in 1962, the Guns of August is, without exaggeration, one of the most significant works of history ever written. It focuses entirely on the run up to mankind’s greatest disaster, the First World War, and describes in elegant, often humorous, and always painstaking detail how exactly Europe, at the height of its power at the turn of the century, slid so quickly into a debacle that would fundamentally define its history for the next century.

While the Guns of August is most certainly a history, it reads like a novel. Tuchman is as astonishing a writer as she is a scholar, and it is easy to forget that the cast of characters she paints on the verge of the world’s first great calamity, some foolish, some malicious, few noble, and most simply naïve, are not some fanciful creation but were all too real in 1914. The book won the Pulitzer Prize on its publication and impressed everyone from academics to book critics to president Kennedy himself, who was so affected by Tuchman’s conclusions that he ordered his entire staff to read it as a cautionary tale of what can happen when plans and contingencies become to rigid, and thinking becomes fatalistic. Kennedy’s actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which occurred in October of the same year the book was published, his refusal to be shoehorned in by military regulations and diplomatic protocols, show that he took the book’s lessons to heart. It sounds melodramatic, but in this capacity, you could say that The Guns of August saved the world.

Okay, enough of all that. Obviously I love this book, and I think highly of it. Tuchman’s style is fast paced yet detailed, and she is constantly witty and so dryly sardonic you probably want to keep a glass of water handy to keep from dehydrating. Even if you aren’t a fan of history, I think you’ll find Tuchman’s use of language alone reward enough to keep going.

[I actually ran a book club on this awhile ago, and typed up some additional info for readers on a time budget. Details below.:]

Chapters 1-5 - Details the world situation at the turn of the century, introduces all the main characters, and details just how Europe became a powder keg by 1914. Basically the most important part of the book.

Chapters 6-9 - How exactly the planning, assumptions, attitudes, and "Terrible Ifs," in Churchill's words, all sloshed together to spiral events out of control.

Chapter 10 - On the brink of war in the Mediterranean. German and British ships play cat and mouse as they wait for their countries' official declarations. An excellent example of how restricted thinking on the part of the Allies had tremendous consequences early in the war.

Chapter 13 - At least read the first couple pages of this. The account of the first initial battles of the Frontiers is classic and Tuchman's style really comes to the fore here.

Chapters 15-16 - while Ch. 5 talked about assumptions and fears re: Russia, these chapters reveal what actually happened on the Eastern Front. We have so many Russophiles it would be a shame to skip these chapters (though you probably won't like how it turns out...), which have in a general sense some pretty epic storytelling anyway.

Chapter 17 - Breaking from the narrative, this details German attitudes about the rules of war and how this translated into the horrors committed behind the lines in the initial days of WWI. Probably don't want to read this if you're having a really good day. Nevertheless, an eye-opening look at how cultural differences can have grave consequences in extreme situations.

Chapter 22 - How France finally finds her nerve and takes advantage of Germany's great blunder. The last half especially is absolutely epic. If you're not familiar with the chronology of WWI, though, I'd HIGHLY recommend going through all previous chapters or this might loose some Oomph, so to say.(less)

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Jan 22, 2008

Charissa rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: peaceniks, warmongers, history buffs, and everyone in between

Recommended to Charissa by: my ex-husband

Shelves: history, all-time-faves, war

This was the first non-fiction history book that read so much like a good novel that I screamed through it almost without pausing for breath. I knew bits and pieces about World War I before this... but the persistent idiocy of so many involved simply held me riveted to the pages. One of my favorite bits is how the French kept insisting on wearing their red uniforms as they charged through field and forest toward machine gun fire. They just couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that "...more

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Mar 28, 2010

Stephen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: easton-press, ebooks, 6-star-books, audiobook, world-war-the-original, 1954-1969, the-way-we-war

6.0 stars. WOW!! This book was AMAZING!! I have always been very interested in World War II and have read quite a few books on the subject. However, until reading THIS book I had never endeavored to learn anything more than the basics of World War I. With the reading of this incredible book, I have taken a tremendous step towards correcting that deficit.

Focusing on the first 30 days of World War I (hence the title), this beautifully written book addresses in great detail the causes...more

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Jan 15, 2008

Brandon Sawyer rated it

· review of another edition

Only on here to prove to my as-yet-nonexistent Goodreads friends that I read non-fiction. But it really is a great book. Focuses on the leadup and first month of World War I, establishing the trench warfare deadlock that stretched out over the following years. Dense, but readable, with that gnawing build that good historical nonfiction books can give you (which I assume, having read only one). You know what's coming, but every new development still makes you feel like letting loose a 90-year...more

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Jan 01, 2012

Frederick Bingham rated it

· review of another edition

This is the story of August 1914. The major European powers got ready to fight each other in what we now call World War I. Each side had a plan that would, they were certain, make the war very short. The germans were counting on it to last 6 weeks. The war started, and everything stopped going according to the plan. The germans made rapid advances, and nearly wiped out the french army. The french, defeated in the initial battles, went into a full retreat. They finally stopped and took a stand at...more

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Aug 06, 2011

Jack Wang added it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

A detailed account of the torrid first thirty days of the First World War up to the beginning of the Battle of the Marne. Tuchman tells of the buildup of war as fueled by German rise and its perception of English "encirclement," the flawed German Schlieffen plan of quick decisive victory by invasion of France through Belgium, and the equally flawed French Plan 17 which anticipated drawing in German forces on the flanks with a concentrated force in order to break through the center. I f...more

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Nov 22, 2008

David rated it

· review of another edition

I've read some books on WW II recently, and realized I don't know much about WW I - so decided to remedy that with this Pulitzer Prize winner, considered by many to be one of the best histories ever written. It's a broad and comprehensive treatment of the month preceding the start of the conflict, and the first month of the war itself. Listening to the audiobook made everything seem a bit sterile and unimaginative and complicated at first, but it picked up as I got more into it. I think this is ...more

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Jan 07, 2012

Al rated it

· review of another edition

This is great popular history, beautifully written, explaining with clarity the tenuous course of the first month of World War I. Published in the 1960's, it is a model of historical writing. Tuchman is/was the master of the telling human details which make for riveting reading, even when the basic events and outcome are known to the reader in advance. Here's an example. She is describing a dramatic moment in Belgium's history, when its young King Albert has come to his Parliament one hour aft...more

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Jan 06, 2012

Pvw rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical

Amazing how a detailed account of only one month in a war that would last for four years, can be so captivating to read. Tuchman manages to render kings, commanders, generals, advisors, emperors and tsars, mayors and lower ranking officers so lively that this historical work reads like a good novel.

Furthermore, the book gives great insight in all the tactical and strategical blunders that may have caused this blitzkrieg to become the horribly static trench war it turned into. Partially...more

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Nov 07, 2011

Jesse Decker rated it

· review of another edition

This book has long been praised as one of the best on World War I, and the accolades are deserved. I began the sample with only a little interest in the topic and no prior knowledge other than that there were a lot of trenches. The book did a wonderful job of placing me in the moments right before and after the start of the war. The work carried enough context and information to overcome my lack of prior knowledge without becoming bogged down in detail.

The characters seemed approachab...more

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Oct 17, 2011

Christopher rated it

· review of another edition

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a very long time. I'd heard and read about what a great work of history this was even 40 years after its first publication, but I just never found the time to sit down and read it. Now that I have read it I can say with confidence that it does meet the heap of praise that is plastered across it's covers (front and back) and in its first pages. Mrs. Tuchman writes so beautifully in the first 100-200 pages as well as in the afterword that it turns what co...more

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Nov 27, 2010

Steve rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history, inlibrary, non-fiction

This book, published in the early 1960s to the acclaim of a Pulitzer Prize, is an erudite elucidation of the background situation and actions of the beginning month of the First World War. An amazing detailed historical account, that still manages to both readable and insightful.

Tuchman does not (as would be popular today with our democratic directorial lens) concentrate on foot soldiers reactions, personal side stories, nor war's brutal caustic acid which dissolves individual moral ...more

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Nov 25, 2010

Matt Hines rated it

· review of another edition

I have always loved history because it is about real people, and how the decisions they make can impact history. This book by Barbara Tuchman explores that concept in spades. This is a book which begins in 1910, at the funeral of King Edward VII of England. At that funeral were all the royal houses of Europe, of whom most can claim "Uncle Edward" as a literal relative. Most of these monarchs were feuding, most strengthened their alliances either with France or with Germany for the war ...more

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Jun 27, 2010

carl theaker rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history, war

A great read! Always thought I had to read this more of
as a duty, but quite the readable tale of the first months of the war.
Not just for the history fanatic.

So many times both sides close to changing world events
and creating new ones. Great insights into the personalities
and setting the stage for WW2. Even got my old Avalon
hill game out of the closet for reference. Glad I read this one.

Here's a bit on the who is related t...more

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Mar 17, 2010

Ben rated it

· review of another edition

I picked up Ms. Tuchman's classic account of the first month of World War I because I have an embarrassing lack of knowledge about the Great War. I consider myself to be a student of history, but I've never really made an effort to learn about the conflict that was both the culmination of so many important historical trends and the seed of the Second World War and the shape of the world since.

When I was looking for a good place to start my exploration of WWI, The Guns of August kept ...more

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Oct 11, 2009

Bruce rated it

· review of another edition

Germany came close to winning the First World War in the first month of fighting. German commanders confidently expected to march their exhausted troops into Paris in the first week of September. The French Government has already fled the capital. It was to be the crowning glory of a month of victories. Germany had a forty-day plan for winning the war and their armies were right on schedule. In four days they expected to be in Paris. What they did not expect was for the retreating French forces ...more

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Nov 12, 2009

Alyssa rated it

· review of another edition

The beginning of WWI from the perspective of all of the major countries involved. The author has done amazing research to bring all of the different characters and events to life-everything from a general's mustache to the petty arguments between politicians. However, the detail was too much for me in comparison with the acutal action described. It seemed liked there were simply too many tangents to keep my mind engaged with the story. War buffs would absolutely eat this up, though, so that's ju...more

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Aug 16, 2010

Bart Thanhauser rated it

· review of another edition

As a preface to this review, I wanted to say that the pace at which I read a book ultimately affects my reactions. A quick pace tends to accentuate the experience. Read a bad book quickly, and the annoying quirks become sort of overwhelming. Read a good book quickly and the prose and pieces fit together even better. That said, I read this book at a pretty sluggish pace (until the final five chapters) so I feel that my reactions are ultimately a bit dulled.

A couple strong reactions pe...moreAs a preface to this review, I wanted to say that the pace at which I read a book ultimately affects my reactions. A quick pace tends to accentuate the experience. Read a bad book quickly, and the annoying quirks become sort of overwhelming. Read a good book quickly and the prose and pieces fit together even better. That said, I read this book at a pretty sluggish pace (until the final five chapters) so I feel that my reactions are ultimately a bit dulled.

A couple strong reactions persist nontheless.

Some reviewers have said this reads better than fiction. I disagree. Sure it's not a dry PhD thesis that belongs in some university attic. But the detail got a little too dense for my liking. I'm no military history buff, so the discussions on exposed flanks and troop movements seemed stretched out for me. The larger points (the cult of the offensive, Russia's intel mistakes, British inaction, Belgian resistance) are more valuable and compelling than some of the book's finer details. (It also didn't help that I couldn't figure out how to get my Kindle to zoom in on Tuchman's maps.)

Still, the last few chapters are gold. The frantic scramble to save France (and Europe?) from German victory kept me enthralled.

Tuchman's admitted subjectivity also jumped out at me. Sure, all history is subjective but Tuchman's subjectivity seemed dated in historical stereotypes: the punctual, but cruel Germans. The free-wheeling French. The perpetually drunk Russians. And she picks her heros and bad guys, and paints them pretty strongly. Such and such was a priggish idiot. Such and such made the most crucial mistake of the war. But I guess that's part of what makes this book so compelling: the characters really jump out at you even though at times they seem better suited for box-office action films.

Still I can't deny that Tuchman did an incredible job researching this book. And for me, Tuchman's Afterword on the job of the historian sweeps away concerns about her overly-bold descriptions: "[The historian:] discovers that truth is subjective and separate, made up of little bits seen, experienced, and recorded by different people. It is like a design seen through a kaleidosope; when the cylinder is shaken the countless colored fragment form a new picture. Yet they are the same fragments that made a different picture a moment earlier." For me, these sentences gave even more weight to her writing.

Lastly the Cold War thesis that made this book especially powerful when first published was tough for me to find. Published in the year of the Bay of Pigs, this book is supposed to do more than rehash the first month of World War I. According to Tuchman's not-so-humble Preface, the book's underlying thesis argues that the events of August 1914 ultimately set the course for the 20th century and the great ideological battle between the US and Russia. Or at least that's what it's supposed to do.

Maybe because I'm a young'n born just before the Wall came down, but I had trouble finding this underlying Cold War thesis. Sure, Tuchman shows that August 1914 changed the world forever. That a war that began for really no good reason at all (just from an unstable multi-polar world) would leave Europe drained and poor, and set the stage for World War 2. But even though Tuchman was writing at the height of Cold War tension, I didn't get that impression from the book.

Nontheless the book is highly relevant (not to mention entertaining) today. There's a certain romanticism found in Tuchman's last chapters that still rings true. Although WWI was a senseless war, to many it was the war to end all wars. There was a feeling that in July 1914 the world was on the brink of some titanic shift. And there was an optimism that if German imperialism could be stopped, some type of stable, happy, trade-focused world order could emerge. Maybe it was a naive hope (and one that ultimately led to horrifying disillusionment), but it's a naivity that still has a lot of power today. And this is a point I appreciated it.

So, yes this is an entertaining piece of history. At times it seemed to lean heavily on box-office type characters but maybe that's what differentiates it from drier texts. Ultimately, Tuchman commandingly gives relevance and entertainment to one of the defining months of the past century. It's a pretty good kaleidoscope. (less)

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Feb 15, 2009

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

Though maybe nothing would have prevented Germany from invading France, it was the accumulation of mistakes and chance and small confusions and bullheaded thinking (some of which got hundreds of thousands of people killed) that turned it from a 6 month war with localized casualties into a 4 year hell. "Guns" only covers up to the (1st) Battle of Marne, which was the battle that assured that the Germans would not win quickly and set the stage for 4 years of trench fighting. And like so...more

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Apr 20, 2009

Tony duncan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: history, politics, military buffs

Shelves: history, politics, audio

A very well written book. Quite interesting all the way through, even when it got into the specific military movements near the end. I am familiar with the period, but since my interest was in radical politics, I didn;t know much about the specirics of the war or the personalities. Amazing the degree of incompetence and pig headedness.
What started interesting me the most about half way through was the similarities between the German rationalizations for the war and the Bush and neocon ...more

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Dec 13, 2011

Kenyon Harbison rated it

· review of another edition

This is probably one of the ten or twenty most famous books of popular history written in the Twentieth Century (it was published in the early 1960's), one of an even more select group of those that were written by a woman, and essentially is an all-time classic of the genre.

This book is often described as being about World War I, or being about what caused World War I. Neither of these is quite correct. This is a book about August 1914. It is about the month of battle that turned...more

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May 28, 2011

Vasha7 rated it

· review of another edition

This summer, I read one memoir and three works of fiction concerning World War I, and am now finishing up with a history. I'm in the fourth chapter, and am finding it very clear. The account of the bottomless stupidity of the French War Office in the time leading up to the war is chilling; the other parties concerned were stupid, but the French in charge of planning were way stupider.

Something that may be lacking in this book is some nuance in the description of social conditions withi...more

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Mar 24, 2010

Erica rated it

· review of another edition

There are a couple of ways to look at this book. It's either maddeningly slow or meticulously detailed. Probably both, if I'm honest with myself. The Guns of August is a narrative history of the first few months of World War I and the events leading up to it. Tuchman teases out the threads of events, personalities, and sheer boneheadedness that led to that incredible entanglement with painstaking care and a real talent for storytelling. The depth and breadth of Tuchman's research is frankly...moreThere are a couple of ways to look at this book. It's either maddeningly slow or meticulously detailed. Probably both, if I'm honest with myself. The Guns of August is a narrative history of the first few months of World War I and the events leading up to it. Tuchman teases out the threads of events, personalities, and sheer boneheadedness that led to that incredible entanglement with painstaking care and a real talent for storytelling. The depth and breadth of Tuchman's research is frankly astounding and a little frightening, but perhaps even more of an achievement is her ability to condense it all (if you call 524 pages condensed) into a coherent narrative. That said, the level of detail is sometimes a little tedious--there are entire series of chapters about the same three days written from the points of view of England, Germany, France, Russia, and Belgium. Fascinating, but boy is there lots of it.

What I really loved about this book is Tuchman's talent for drawing a character in a few simple sentences. There are a lot of characters in a story like this, some of them important only for a minute or two. Tuchman draws them all in such a way that makes it eminently clear that the causes of WWI were human. Kaiser William, by her portrayal, was a petulant maniac. A few of my favorite examples:

"Massive and paunchy in his baggy uniform, with a fleshy face adorned by a heavy, nearly white mustache and bushy eyebrows to match, with a clear youthful skin, calm blue eyes and a candid, tranquil gaze, Joffre looked like Santa Claus and gave an impression of benevolence and naivete-two qualities not noticeably part of his character" (47).

"Tall and imposing with his black spade beard and his aura of wickedness composed of mistresses, money, Congo cruelties, and other scandals, Leopold was, in the opinion of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, 'a thoroughly bad man'" (28-29).

Tuchman has a little bit of an ironic commentary that pops up once in a while and made me laugh. She also describes the horrors of the war in a powerful, moving way. The book will frustrate you as Tuchman demonstrates time and again how events and choices just piled up on top of one another to create a terrible war where war could have been stopped by any of the parties involved. I found myself clenching my teeth and saying, "Stop this! ANY of you!"

This is another one that I will give to my Dad to read. I think he'd like it.

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Feb 05, 2010

Dr. rated it

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Shelves: military-history

When I picked this up I thought that it was going to be a history of all of World War One. Immideately I realized that instead I had begun a pretty large book that was about just August of 1914. For a second I was a little afraid and even considered putting it down because I wasn't in the mood for something so thorough that was bound to take some wading through, but I couldn't. This book was really good! By far the best single book that I have ever read about the first world war.

The...more

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May 06, 2009

Trevor rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Trevor by: richard wood

Shelves: history

You could almost be excused for thinking that the highest praise one could give a work of non-fiction would be that it reads like a work of fiction. I haven’t looked at any of the other reviews for this book yet, but I would be prepared to bet that many of them say this read like a novel. And it is an incredibly dramatic story and some of the characters are larger than life – but this is no novel.

I say that because in a novel you expect at least some of the characters to develop du...moreYou could almost be excused for thinking that the highest praise one could give a work of non-fiction would be that it reads like a work of fiction. I haven’t looked at any of the other reviews for this book yet, but I would be prepared to bet that many of them say this read like a novel. And it is an incredibly dramatic story and some of the characters are larger than life – but this is no novel.

I say that because in a novel you expect at least some of the characters to develop during it – and the horrible thing about this story is how few of the characters learnt a bloody thing.

As a case in point. It might sound like I’m anti-French, I know, but I can’t help it. All of the countries were stupid, but the French were absurd, and that is something else. I’ve been telling people about this book and these have been the things I have been telling them. A Frenchman goes over to watch the Japanese beat the Russians in a war that was held just before the First World War, a mere decade before the date this book is set. What did he notice in his watching? He noticed that it is generally not a good idea to charge against people with machine guns. After, when he mentioned this to other French generals they decided that he was a coward. He said that wearing a uniform that featured a bright blue coat and bright red trousers might be the equivalent of wearing a bull’s eye tied around your neck and a neon sign saying ‘shoot here’. His saying this was considered not only utterly outrageous but also an insult to French soldiers. When there was a suggestion that the French should use BIG guns, the commanders in charge of infantry rejected the suggestion as big cannons would only ‘slow them down’.

The lesson is that you can change the technology, but people might not understand what that change will mean. In fact, they probably won’t. They may still want to charge in front of machine guns wearing red trousers and showing the world how ‘brave’ they are. Or they might assume that the new communications technology that worked so well in training will work just as well in the chaos of war.

This is a book about a world that has just changed forever and how hard it was for people to realise just what changes had been wrought. It is about how fixed people are in their views, particularly when those views are based on ‘plans’ that have been worked out in detail for years. It is about how hard it is to admit you are wrong, even when all evidence is pointing to the fact. It is about how sometimes people will (effectively) choose death rather than admit they made a mistake.

There is a horrible sense in which this book will help to confirm all of your worst fears about humanity. World War One was the opening nightmare of our modern world. And this book looks at the first month of the war, how that month raced towards war and nearly rushed towards the fall of Paris, and left me despairing for humanity.

I couldn’t get over how many generals were supporters of Nietzsche and his views on the ‘will to power’. The idea that a great man will use his will-power to create a world in his image. That it does not matter how many enemies you face, that all it takes is courage to prevail. And when their armies were beaten back by superior fire power, larger armies and crippled by there being no supplies these same generals put it all down to their soldiers’ lack of courage or lack of will.

All I knew about the start of the war before reading this book was that some Prince got killed in the Balkans, Austria and Germany had a pact that meant if one was attacked the other would have to fight with them – Russia, France and England were in much the same situation. The world started fighting, soldiers dug tranches and everything stayed like that until they called it quits. Oh, and lots and lots of people died.

I had no idea how close Germany came to winning the war against France in that first month. This really is a gripping story, but it is still not a novel. In fact, I kept thinking that this would make a much better film than a novel. And it would make an amazing film. The conversations between members of parliament and generals and kings are invariably remarkable.

This is well worth getting your hands on. Thanks to Richard for recommending it to me.
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About Barbara W. Tuchman

Barbara Wertheim Tuchman was an American self-trained historian and author. She became best known for The Guns of August, a history of the prelude and first month of World War I.

As an author, Tuchman focused on producing popular history. Her clear, dramatic storytelling covered topics as diverse as the 14th century and World War I, and sold millions of copies.

More about Barbara W. Tuchman...

Books by Barbara W. Tuchman

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914

The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-45

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“The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.” — 5 people liked it

“Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.” — 2 people liked it

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