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A review by samferree
The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series by Barbara W. Tuchman
5.0
It's exactly 16 days before the centennial anniversary of World War One and I've been listening to this book while I walk to and from work. Originally, I had it in a collection of Tuchman I got from the Library of America, but I gave that copy to a friend and so I listened to it as a book on tape from the library.
The book, as Tuchman explains in the introduction, is a snapshot of the world before the first World War. She deliberately never mentions the Event itself, because to do so would make every occurrence an "cause" of the Great War instead of a culmination of effort of the people who had no idea of the coming catastrophe. That's what makes the final chapter so sad and ominous. It's about the history and rise of socialism in Europe and America and how it was essentially an optimistic perspective on human civilization and the Working Man. The socialists believed that the workers would never participate in a war in which they were pitted one against another, right up until the War began.
I can't find the quote, but in one essay of a later edition of The Proud Tower, Tuchman says something to the effect of, "We never think of World War One as our war, but it is the moment when the United States came to its majority in world affairs." It's important to remember this event and the Zeitgeist that caused it. ... And the deeply troubling thing is that a lot of the issues that led to the Great War and the Second are suddenly Up for Debate again.
The book, as Tuchman explains in the introduction, is a snapshot of the world before the first World War. She deliberately never mentions the Event itself, because to do so would make every occurrence an "cause" of the Great War instead of a culmination of effort of the people who had no idea of the coming catastrophe. That's what makes the final chapter so sad and ominous. It's about the history and rise of socialism in Europe and America and how it was essentially an optimistic perspective on human civilization and the Working Man. The socialists believed that the workers would never participate in a war in which they were pitted one against another, right up until the War began.
I can't find the quote, but in one essay of a later edition of The Proud Tower, Tuchman says something to the effect of, "We never think of World War One as our war, but it is the moment when the United States came to its majority in world affairs." It's important to remember this event and the Zeitgeist that caused it. ... And the deeply troubling thing is that a lot of the issues that led to the Great War and the Second are suddenly Up for Debate again.