Rating: 
Summary: My favorite Tuchman book
Review: The Proud Tower is in my opinion Tuchman's best work. Yes, even better than "The Guns of August." Writing about the 20 - odd years before the start of World War One, Tuchman explores European society at the turn of the century, recalling the forces that eventually collided in 1914.As she chronologically moves towards the beginning of the Great War, specific countries and specific social issues are addressed. This works well, and makes for a fast-paced intriguing read. However, Tuchman devotes most of her energies to on the personalities and forces in Western Europe with little more than a cursory nod to Russia and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Turkey, Italy and the balkans are hardly discussed at all, and even then only as they relate to Western Europe. This is peculiar, given the disproprotionate influence these areas had on the causes of the eventual conflict. The Proud Tower is nontheless a wonderful social history of fin-de-sicle Europe. A better read on the same time period - and one that has more of a Central European focus is Frederick Norton's Thunder at Twilight.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Tuchman book
Review: The Proud Tower is in my opinion Tuchman's best work. Yes, even better than "The Guns of August." Writing about the 20 - odd years before the start of World War One, Tuchman explores European society at the turn of the century, recalling the forces that eventually collided in 1914. As she chronologically moves towards the beginning of the Great War, specific countries and specific social issues are addressed. This works well, and makes for a fast-paced intriguing read. However, Tuchman devotes most of her energies to on the personalities and forces in Western Europe with little more than a cursory nod to Russia and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Turkey, Italy and the balkans are hardly discussed at all, and even then only as they relate to Western Europe. This is peculiar, given the disproprotionate influence these areas had on the causes of the eventual conflict. The Proud Tower is nontheless a wonderful social history of fin-de-sicle Europe. A better read on the same time period - and one that has more of a Central European focus is Frederick Norton's Thunder at Twilight.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Take on World War I
Review: This is not one of Barbara Tuchman's best known books and yet it may be her most daring work. Tuchman's thesis is how could something as horrible as World War I happen if everything in the preceding years were so good? The answer is that "la belle epoque" is a myth and the quarter century prior to WWI was a very unsettling time.
Tuchman does this by snapshots of various countries just before the war, so the book is more like short stories than a consistent narrative like The Guns of August. Depending on your interests, some chapters will be more fascinating than others.
Her take on the British class structure did not thrill me that much, but she was very strong on the Anarchist movement, which has eerie overtones given current events, and the American Labor Movement. The centerpiece is a tour de force of early modern French history, specifically the Dreyfus Affair. Hardly touched in schools anymore, the Dreyfus Affair nearly tore France apart and Tuchman gives riveting account of what went on and how high the stakes were. This chapter alone is worth buying the book.
In fact when I was in high school and college, World War I and the preceding years were lightly covered. Maybe people find World War II more interesting, or easier to understand. But the first World War was just as important (perhaps more so) and the causes of that conflict are complicated and raise very important issues. The Proud Tower is a good start to understanding this often overlooked historical period.
Rating: 
Summary: A rich and fascinating look at pre-WWI society
Review: Tuchman's book is a magnificent piece of work, solidly-written and very readable. She offers us a fascinating look at the society which was about to go through the painful transformation into the modern age. The time immediately before and during World War I is an amazing point in history, and offers the contemporary reader a look at a time which is modern enough that we can easily relate to it, but which also seems very far removed from our current culture and society. This book is valuable for giving the reader a broad picture of what life, politics, etc. was like during the period. Read this first, then read Hilaire Belloc's "Path to Rome", and then perhaps Tuchman's "Guns of August", and John Keegan's "The First World War", and round it out with Tuchman's "The Zimmermann Telegram". The Great War and the times around it were the turning point of modern history, indeed, the times were "The Birth of the Modern" as Paul Johnson might say. It is easy to fall in love with reading about this period, and "The Proud Tower" is an excellent place to start.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Book
Review: Was the 19'th Century a bore? Barbara Tuchman, whose masterpiece The Guns of August was the best history of WWI ever written, has failed to meet her potention with this regrettable yawn. The Proud Tower fails, in almost every way her earlier books succeeded. It is disjointed, meandering, uninteresting. In other words, a bore. Why is this so? Based on her skill at writing, I would almost have to conclude that the times were uninteresting. But, great fan of Tuchman that I am, I have to conclude that she just did a bad job on this particular book. Ms. Tuchman goes from country to country and details some of the "major events" of that time. Since these events didn't seem to be well connected, the book becomes a little disjointed. More importantly, what she sees as a "major event" often times is her own personal choice. I disagreed with her conclusions on which events were major, so I was not very interested in reading about them. More importantly, Ms. Tuchman tries to make connections with some of these events, connections which really aren't there. For example, do you know who Thomas Reed was? I didn't know before this book. Thomas Reed was the Speaker of the American House of Representatives. During his tenure, he changed a 120 year old House rule about voting requirements. Before he came, the House rules stated that you needed a certain amout of the Congressmen present, in order to vote. Oftentimes, if the minority party disliked a proposed law when roll call was taken before the vote, they would not answer "Here." As a consequences, laws which has a support of the majority couldn't pass because Congressmen would pretend not to be there. Mr. Reed, changed this rule. Big deal? Based on the amount of her book dedicated to this "struggle" Ms. Tuchman thinks it was. I don't. I found it boring. Ms. Tuchman also spent alot of time on the "Dreyfus Affair" I had heard about the Dreyfus Affair many times, but I never knew what actually happened. After you read "The Proud Tower", you will know ever detail, including many that were uninteresting. Sometimes a more concise story is more gripping. This is really the problem with this book. It has too much details about too many events which aren't connected. Ms. Tuchman could have wrote 2 or 3 seperate good books from this material. Instead she choose to write one bad one. Read her other, shorter, books. She can write well. She just did not do so this time.
Rating:
Summary: The Lights are Going Out all over Europe
Review: WE shall not see them lighted again in our lifetime" Lord Grey..I have loved the writer since "The Guns of August". This history of the era up to the beginning of the Great War is readable, accurate, and fascinating. Ms. Tuchman makes the personalities come alive with their strengths and their foibles. I have never read anything better about the headlong, reckless, and perhaps, inevitable rush to engage the great powers of Europe in a war that would kill the brightest and best of a whole generation and eventually lead to the collapse of European world hedgemony. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: The Lights are Going Out all over Europe
Review: WE shall not see them lighted again in our lifetime" Lord Grey..I have loved the writer since "The Guns of August". This history of the era up to the beginning of the Great War is readable, accurate, and fascinating. Ms. Tuchman makes the personalities come alive with their strengths and their foibles. I have never read anything better about the headlong, reckless, and perhaps, inevitable rush to engage the great powers of Europe in a war that would kill the brightest and best of a whole generation and eventually lead to the collapse of European world hedgemony. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: A Symphonic Masterpiece
Review: Yes, I understand the viewpoint of the reviewers who thought that this was not Tuchman's best work, because it certainly is different from Guns of August or Zimmerman, with their relentless and suspenseful narratives. Nonetheless, this book represents brilliant work and sumptuous writing. In fact, I agree with those reviewers who think it may be her best work. The book is a collection of essays, any one of which could stand proudly and separately. But when linked together, the separate chapters become a glorious symphony of historical insight. When I was finished the book, I realized that I hadn't quite understood how the pieces fit together. So I read the book again. That's when I saw what a dazzling accomplishment this was. Indeed, like a symphony. The book may even be worth a third read. It's that good.
| 
