Rating: 
Summary: An excellent preface to "The Guns of August"
Review: A collection of essays and magazine pieces published from 1962-65, Mrs. Tuchman attempts a snapshot of the major powers as well as two of the major movements: the first organized terrorist movement, Anarchism and the rise of Communism which agitated and propelled that Lost World into the catastrophe that ended European dominance and put the remaining Empires (British, French, Belgian and Dutch) on life-support and led to the twin horrors of the Shoah and Communism.
The "chapters" are only loosely linked by the theme announced in the sub-title: "A Portrait of the World Before the War." Mrs. Tuchman doesn't quite achieve that, put her fluid, graceful prose and easy, unostentatious erudition still make even the less significant pieces a pleasure to read. While an attempt was made to mould them into a homogenous whole, it doesn't quite work. They remain separate pieces. The qualities of the essays vary with the ones on German militarism and "L'Affaire Dreyfus" Chapters 4 and 6.
Tuchman also badly misunderstands the greatest and most influential of all German 19th century philosophers--Nietzsche--but she's in excellent company there. Few students of philosophy properly understand Nietzche so it's hardly surprising a general historian would repeat the cliches and misunderstanding of that enemy of German militarism and premature proponent of European cosmopolitanism--a process not dissimilar to that which the US Civil War began and which is still not complete within the United States.
As introduction to the period, the two above-noted essays are good enough. But a far better introduction to France before the war and the treason comitted by prominent French politicians as well as the Drefus Affair, Richard Watt's "Dare Call It Treason" is far superior.
A much better examination of Wilhelmine Germany (1871-1918) is to be found in Alexandra Richie's monumental "Faust's Metropolis", a history--if not "biography"--of Berlin. Though the period in question forms only a part of Richie's book, it gives a much better account of the insane militarism and the peculiarly fin-de-siecle German qualities of inferiority and megalomania. The vision of the Kaiser conducting champagne-fueled, homosexual orgies is shocking when you remember that more than two million German soldiers were dying whilst this busted flush of an Emperor debauched and disgraced himself while his nation's manhood underwent its own holocaust that would destroy the social fabric of Germany.
Indeed, the lack of focus in this book is its biggest weakness. "The Guns of August"--to which this book serves as a kind of preface or prolouge--and "A Distant Mirror" bring laser-like focus to one subject and use that to explore the ancillary subjects and illuminate their relationships to the "world-historical" events surrounding them. "Proud Tower" is essentially the ancillaries without the main event, the overture without the opera.
With so many books about these two subjects, Wilhelmine Germany and Third Republic France (the longest French form of government to last since the French Revolution, 1871-1940), the book has little that strikes this reader as distinguishing it from the crowd.
The essay on Anarchism is interesting in light of the War on Terror but, like the others, it provides little more than a superficial introduction to deeply complex events. Had Tuchman conceived and written this book "of a piece" it would probably have been far superior. On the other hand, it suffers from the defect which it shares with nearly all one-volume histories: in order to give a comprehensive account, the author must decide which events to leave out, which to gloss over and which to concentrate more fully upon. The fact the book is a collection of essays ramifies the defect. Tuchman's last book, "The March of Folly" shows that she could have done a much better job of linking widely different and complex historical events to an overarching theme.
All in all, it fails to meet the brilliant standards of "The Guns of August," "A Distant Mirror" and the "Zimmerman Telegram." But, it does have the virtue of Tuchman's excellent prose and passion for the subject. And for this and the two essays mentioned in this review, I give it three stars.
Rating: 
Summary: A magnificent achievement
Review: A simply marvellous recreation of a world which disappeared with the Great War. Its colours, characters - and inequalities and the vipers in its bosom which were to destroy it - are vividly brought to life. For some people, "the good old days" were very good indeed, for most they weren't.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Account
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Account
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: An Uncommon View of History
Review: Barbara Tuchman attempts something that is not normally done by historians. She tells a tale of how a war starts not from the perspective of princes, politicians and the great generals but from the mood and movements within the societies of the main combatants. We are a century, and a culture, removed from the way our great-grandparents saw life. It's difficult for us to understand how World War I came about without understanding the mind-set of the people who fought it. This, unfortunately, can make for dull reading unless enlivened by the stories of outstanding or eccentric individuals. Real history isn't always so obliging so yes, there are dull sections in this book--especially in the latter half. I applaud Ms. Tuchman's honest and honorable attempt to give us the social viewpoint of the time but I must warn you this is not a book for the casual reader who is looking for light entertainment. This is a work of scholarship.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting historical viewpoint; fine writing
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating look at most of the world
Review: Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower is a great look at western Europe and America in the 25 years before the Great War. I was surprised at just how optimistic everyone was: socialism and anarchism didn't seem like lofty dreams and progress was natural and beneficial. Problems like poverty, inequality, and war appeared to have solutions just around the corner. Tuchman's method of choosing what to include is both interesting and nearly-annoyingly incomplete. Sure we find out about Dreyfusard France, musically/militarily dominant Germany, imperialist America, and noble Britain - but what about Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary, or even Japan? Other than that, if you are interested in learning about western Europe in the Gilded Age/post-Victorian era this would be a great book to start with.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating look at most of the world
Review: Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower is a great look at western Europe and America in the 25 years before the Great War. I was surprised at just how optimistic everyone was: socialism and anarchism didn't seem like lofty dreams and progress was natural and beneficial. Problems like poverty, inequality, and war appeared to have solutions just around the corner. Tuchman's method of choosing what to include is both interesting and nearly-annoyingly incomplete. Sure we find out about Dreyfusard France, musically/militarily dominant Germany, imperialist America, and noble Britain - but what about Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary, or even Japan? Other than that, if you are interested in learning about western Europe in the Gilded Age/post-Victorian era this would be a great book to start with.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant, captivating but ultimately without a point
Review: Barbara W. Tuchman's "The Proud Tower" is overly ambitious undertaking, even for the author of the "Guns of August". To present in a single, however voluminous book, a social, economic, cultural and artistic history of the golden age of "fin du siècle" Europe and to do this in a brilliant popular style open to anyone is a masterful undertaking. "The proud tower" starts with social history of upper class Victorians of the later age of Salisbury, thought the Dreyfus Affair which split the social consciousness of France to age of Balfour, Edwardians and realization of the German threat. Parallel track in a book deals with the rise of anarchism and Marxism throughout the Europe and USA, development of those ideas which eventually gave rise to both European socialism and the menace of Bolshevism. The best parts of the book, in my opinion, are the drama of the Dreyfus Affair and the description of the late Victorian epoch. The history of Marxism is not clear, muddled, and is not helped by the author omitting significant historical facts. Logically it does not follow thought why people acted the way they acted in political protest. The book might've been helped by following thought with just a single out of 2 main narrative lines - political history of the upper classes or the social history of the lower classes. As written it does not make a single central point, and as such lost my attention at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Shatters misconceptions about pre-WW I "innocence".
Review: Because of the horror of WWI - and the frequency with which it has been used as a metaphor for a societal loss of innocence - it is far too easy to assume that the days before the War were somehow Edenic or, at the very least, were without strife and major conflict. Tuchman's great insight is that nothing as terrible as WWI comes out of a vacuum, that the War was actually the result of pressures that had been building for years. She skillfully chooses incidents from all the major players of the War that demonstrate the tensions and contradictions in each that would find release on the battlefield. While colorful and vivid, Tuchman frequently delves into too much detail, especially in some of the later, less interesting chapters. Perhaps shorter chapters covering a wider range of topics would have made for a better read. Also, she often assumes a familiarity with certain subjects that the reader may not have. This may be due to the fact that the book was published in 1962, when the events written about were not so far in the past as they are today. Overall, though, an interesting and insightful read into an often under-reported period.
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