Barbara W. Tuchman - Guns of August

Pros: Readable, engaging history of the outbreak of WWI
Cons: The events seem so old some will not be interested.

The Guns of August

By Barbara Tuchman

Little could anyone foresee that the opening of hostilities in 1914 would embroil the world in such a vast conflict. The unimaginable size and horrendous cost of the First World War,...

Pros: A history book that reads like a page-turner. Makes you think.. a lot!
Cons: ...it dowses my hope that we had learned the lessons of the past.

When I first read Barbara Tuchman's ‘The Guns of August' back while I was in college in the late 90's, I found it an entertaining and educational read. This past week I revisited the book again and am compelled to add another adjective to ...

Pros: Well-researched with a nice narrative flow. A detailed look at command decisions that determined history.
Cons: Not all events referenced are fully explained, e.g. France's loss at Sedan.

Barbara Tuchman zeroes in on the first month of World War I, otherwise known as "The Great War," in her Pulitzer Prize winning history. This was the most dynamic single-month period of the four-year-long struggle remembered chiefly for entrenched armies ...

Pros: Pure Tuchman
Cons: What cons?

There is a sense in which the Great War is as great a slash across the continuity of history as was the Reformation. No one has done a better job of capturing the feel of the vanished era before that war, the Victorian noon and Edwardian afternoon, than...

Pros: Hey, it's Tuchman. Next question
Cons: Some new evidence requires minor caveats

Pros: readable, engaging
Cons: none

Over the summer, I pulled a book off my shelf that I had been meaning to read for a long time: Barbara Tuchman’s Guns of August. I had been interested in the world wars for a long time, but never got around to diving into them. I wasn’t sure what to...

Pros: So well written that you'll think you're reading a novel
Cons: None

How much do you really know about World War I? I'll have to admit that before I read The Guns of August I didn't know very much. I could name some of the major players, and of course I knew the outcome, but I could never really explain how it all s ...

Pros: in depth and extremely well written
Cons: by necessity devotes much space to politics and world leaders instead of men in the trenches

The Guns of August is THE world war one book all others are judged against. It does an excellent job of weaving political events and headquarters decisions with personal accounts of what happened in the field. The best compliment that I can give any...

Pros: Very Accessible, Very Intriguing, Very Insightful
Cons: Too short!

Tuchman has certain pages in her books -- they aren't announced, you don't always see them coming -- she stops talking about the who what and where, and delves into the why. She climbs inside the head of one of these historical figures, and rather than...