Guns of August (Audio Cassette) by Barbara W. Tuchman - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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Sep 22, 2008

John rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

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...more 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 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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Aug 18, 2008

Silvana rated it:

(review of isbn 034538623X)

bookshelves: history, military-espionage, nonfiction, own, top-20

Read in March, 2009

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 fi...more 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 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 05, 2008

Gail rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

bookshelves: 2008, own, ww-i

Read in August, 2008

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 isbn 0345476093)

Read in January, 2002

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.
...more 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.

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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Oct 22, 2007

Charissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

bookshelves: all-time-faves, history, war

Read in January, 2005

recommended to Charissa by: my ex-husband
recommends it for: peaceniks, warmongers, history buffs, and everyone in between

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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Jan 15, 2008

Brandon Sawyer rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

Read in January, 2007

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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Nov 22, 2008

David rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

Read in June, 2008

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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Mar 17, 2010

Ben rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

Read in March, 2010

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 isbn 0786162953)

Read in October, 2009

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 isbn 0345476093)

Read in November, 2009

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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Feb 15, 2009

Michael rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

Read in December, 2008

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 14, 2009

Tony duncan rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

bookshelves: audio, history, politics

Read in April, 2009

recommends it for: history, politics, military buffs

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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Jan 26, 2010

Dr. rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

bookshelves: military-history

Read in February, 2010

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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Apr 25, 2009

Trevor rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

recommended to Trevor by: richard wood

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 develo...more 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 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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Dec 19, 2009

Pbwritr rated it:

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bookshelves: history

Read in September, 2009

Riveting book for the most part. She peels back layer upon layer about August 1914, from the viewpoints of different countries, primarily Britain, France, German, and Russia, through the eyes of their politicians and generals. The complex mobilization plans, the problems leading to war, various turning points at which war could have been avoided or at which it could have been won during that first month. Reading about the inflexibility to change military plans, the lack of intelligence about t...more

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May 07, 2009

Corny rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in May, 2009

Tuchman's first major work, this narrative of the first month of World War I is compelling mostly because of her sardonic wit. Time and again she pokes fun at the major players while dissecting both their strengths and their weaknesses. The result is a fair, balanced view of an extraordinarily turbulent period. Tracing the roots of the conflict to Edward VII's funeral, a fabulous prologue which occupies the first chapter, Tuchman weaves this tangled story of ego, military brilliance and folly in...more

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Jun 25, 2009

Ido rated it:

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Read in May, 1985

Another of Barbara Tuchman's awesome history books. This one covers just the first month of fighting in Europe during World War I (August 1914). She details the Schlieffen plan ("Let the last man on the right brush the channel with his sleeve") so well and the brutality of the German onslaught and the Allied response during that first month. The failure of the Schlieffen plan ended the possibility of a quick resolution to the war and Europe plunged into 4 years of hell (there were o...more

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Oct 28, 2009

Paul Donahue rated it:

(review of isbn 0026203103)

Read in November, 2009

The Guns of August puts the events preceding World War I and the first month of fighting into an intriguing narrative that outlines the war's broad historical, social, and geopolitical impact, as well as the detailed tactical developments of the German, Russian, French, Belgian, and British armies.

The book is worth reading if only for the opening chapter, which foreshadows the war in its description of the funeral procession of an English King. Tuchman uses the funeral march, consist...more The Guns of August puts the events preceding World War I and the first month of fighting into an intriguing narrative that outlines the war's broad historical, social, and geopolitical impact, as well as the detailed tactical developments of the German, Russian, French, Belgian, and British armies.

The book is worth reading if only for the opening chapter, which foreshadows the war in its description of the funeral procession of an English King. Tuchman uses the funeral march, consisting of Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses, Earls, Dukes, Counts, Sultans, Kaisers, and Czars from across Europe to symbolize the ending of imperial and monarchical Europe. It is so brilliant that the Washington Post rented a hotel room for her over looking John Kennedy's funeral procession with the hope she could write about it with similar effect.

Kennedy himself said this was his favorite book, as it focused on individuals and the impact their decisions, or indecision, had on the course of events. Indeed it seems the wavering of Germany's Moltke and the determined will of France's Joffre enabled the Allies to stave off the initial German attack which would lead to the four-year war of attrition. The goat emerges as Britain's Sir John French, who throughout the book runs from conflict and nearly blew it for the actual French.

This war is amazingly unique in that the technology had so significantly outpaced strategy. Huge battleships and destroyers patrolled the Mediterranean, but without satellites they had no way of knowing where anyone was. It was essentially a game of hide and seek with warships. The French were so sure that an unwavering offensive mindset would trump any strategic disadvantages that they didn't bother to draft initial defensive plans, dig trenches or use barbed wire, or even fully fortify their forts. Generals suggesting retreat were dismissed. Battle plans on both sides were drafted assuming the rate of fire from the guns used in 19th century wars. 20th century machine guns could fire as much as 20 times faster and resulted in the annihilation of a generation of European men.

I only gave this book 4 stars because it got bogged down in the tactics of battle at times, and especially because of its abrupt ending. It seems to build to a climax at the Battle of the Marne, but ends on the night before. It was as if Tuchman lost interest and just wanted to end it. Even if you aren't interested in 500 pages on WWI, the first chapter should be required reading. WWI was truly a pivotal event in world history, and this book gets that point across as an intriguing narrative.(less)

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Jun 19, 2009

Nancy rated it:

(review of isbn 0345476093)

A detailed history of the month of August 1914, the first month of WW1. Tuchman won a pulitzer for this and probably deserved it. It is very very detailed and not an easy read. But there are great insights and tremendous info if you can tough it out. The run up to actually hostilities reminded me of Keystone Kops. It seemed like no one knew what they were doing, where they were going and who's side they were on. The Germans were disgustingly self rightous and agressive while the Russians d...more

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Apr 08, 2009

Greg Burcham rated it:

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Read in April, 2009

Absolutely outstanding book. After Richard Rhodes epic The Making of the Atomic Bomb, this is the second best book I have read. The quality and detail of the research is incredible. The literary style is spectacular, even more so when you consider how clearly it relates a series of historical events. The narrative is so well written and so gripping that I found myself in suspense as events unfolded, as if I were learning of these events for the first time, even though I knew full well the ou...more

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