'To hold the reader's attention'

 

“Books are humanity inprint.  Books are carriers of civilization.  Without books,history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculationat a standstill.” – Barbara Tuchman 

Historian, journalist and author,Tuchman – who was born in New York City on Jan. 30, 1912, was a two-timePulitzer Prize winner for  1962’s The Gunsof August (a prelude to and first month of World War I), and the 1970biography on World War II General Joseph –  Stilwell and the American Experience inChina.  
 

But she is perhaps best known forher insightful 1978 book A Distant Mirror about the calamitous14th Century but considered reflective of the 20th Century,especially about the horrors of war.  That book, too, was a finalistfor the Pulitzer and led the New York Times bestseller list formost of a year.

 

Tuchman dedicated herself tohistorical research and writing, turning out a new book approximately everyfour years.  She provided eloquent explanatory narratives in her writingand was called “a layperson's historian who made the past interesting tomillions of readers.”

 

The author of 20 books, the lastcoming out less than a year before her death in 1989, Tuchman said all writingstyles are acceptable in the sharing of history. 

 

“The writer’s object is – or shouldbe – to hold the reader’s attention.”