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

by Barbara W. Tuchman

Book Overview

"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." --Barbara W. Tuchman 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. 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 Jaur?s was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended. "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." --The New York Times "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." --Time

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0026203006
• ISBN13: 9780026203005
• Release Date: January 1966
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.17 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An Amazing Account

After taking a course in Western Civilization, I became interested in knowing more about how World War I came about - from what little I had known before, it didn't seem necessary. Barbara Tuchman's beautifully written book reinforces the idea that it wasn't necessary but at the same time it became inevitable. This book covers the 24 year period just before WWI begins with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by an anarchist. Such assassinations had occurred a number of times without resulting in war but this time was different. Tuchman guides the reader through all of the cross-currents that built up over those 24 years and shows how a war with Germany became just a matter of when, not whether. Both sides were almost gleeful when they finally had an excuse to touch it off because they were, well, ready.Tuchman seems to touch all of the bases - the latent anger over the Napoleonic wars in which Prussia had been shown to be impotent after all of its militaristic strutting, the attitude of the Western countries in treating Russia as an unwashed, uncouth giant, the desire of Russia to be treated as an equal, the slow but unstoppable march toward constitutionalism and voting enfranchisement of the middle and lower classes that was touched off by the Enlightenment philosophers and the American and French revolutions, the incredible intellectual inconsistency of the Anarchist and Marxian-Socialist movements who taught that nations didn't count and managed to create an atmosphere of fear among the still largely aristocratic governments and the wealthy and new middle-class, the awakening of expansionist (don't dare call it imperialist) sentiment in the USA, and the rapid rise of the economically and militarily powerful united Germany with its seeming certitude that it was destined to be the greatest among equals. There's a lot more but you get the idea.Tuchman wrote beautifully and her work acquaints the reader with the humans behind the events and not just those who are commonly met in the history books. The short-coming from my American point of view is that she doesn't really show how powerful the USA was becoming vis a vie the European powers or why it was likely that the USA would enter the "European War." Perhaps she covered that in "The Guns of August" that I have not yet read. The end of the war didn't really end it - would it have been more likely or less likely to restart if the USA had not entered the war? To me she seemed to have the typical bias of the British conservatives toward the rest of the world and I was surprised to find out as I was writing this that she was American. In any event she was a truly great recorder of history with a daunting ability to absorb and relate vast amounts of information. Well worth reading.

Interesting historical viewpoint; fine writing

Barbara Tuchman is a very good writer of history. It's one of those situations in which you thank the Lord, or somebody, that this particular person decided to go ahead in this particular direction. I don't know if just anyone will enjoy "The Proud Tower," since it deals with a very precise period in history, the Victorian Age in Britain, or the time leading up to the First World War. However, for me Tuchman's book, while not actually revelatory (her book on the origins of W. W. I - "The Guns of August" - definitely was), proved well worth reading. She tends to deal a lot in anecdotes, making you wonder if some of the remarks she attributes to others have been taken out of context. But if this is a weakness, it also lends strength to the book by making it eminently readable. The period of world and particularly European history leading up to those August guns is endlessly interesting, since here was a world which in many ways, was closer to that of the 10th century, than the 20th. Aristocracy was fading, labour movements were slowly but surely making themselves felt, and the lights were, as we now know, slowly going out all over Europe. If you haven't read Tuchman yet, you are missing a very serious investigator who has the added charm of authorial integrity, but doesn't ram anything down your throat. It's intelligent, often perspicacious writing, which really freshens up our notions of what a history book should be.

One of the great History books of all time

I loved The Proud Tower. I wish that all History books were this interesting and informative. The book, as it's subtitle suggests is Ms. Tuchman's portrait of the world in the years leading to the First World War. It is cultural history, political history, biography and more. The book is divided into sections covering the years 1890-1914 in England, France, Germany, and the U.S. It also covers social, political, and cultural movements like Anarchism, Socialism and The Hague Peace Conference. Each section is it's own treasure and made me wish Ms. Tuchman had written an entire book on her various subjects. Many of them were new to me; such as Thomas B. Reed, the U.S. Speaker of the House around the turn of the last century, or the Anarchist movement in Europe and America. Some of the topics were more familiar, like the Dreyfus Affair in France, but no less interesting in her hands. This is a great book!!! Try it and see.