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August 1914 |
There could be no better time to read this definitive and vivid account of
the first thirty days of the Great War by a masterful and highly accessible
historian. Though Tuchman wrote this in 1963, it hasn't dated except in one
instance. Modern historians are perhaps more forensic about the horrific
atrocities committed during the German invasion of Belgium, sensitised by
contemporary stories of ethnic cleansing. Hopefully, history in this regard,
will not repeat itself.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 72 Spring 2014) |
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The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution |
Do you sometimes feel you shouldn't have started a book that has remained unread on your shelves for ages? Picking up the author's last book which takes a meandering look at American independence in the context of the decline of Dutch and French maritime power, Tuchman's famous approach to 'history-as-a-story' is much in evidence but syntactically, the book is a mess and my version is littered with typographical errors. A tarnished but not ruined memory.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 63 Winter 2012) |
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The March of Folly - From Troy to Vietnam |
Tuchman defines folly as 'the pursuit of policy contrary to self interest' and analyses the Renaissance Popes, British loss of America and the Vietnam war within this perspective. Originally published in 1984, her reasoning is eternally relevant - viz. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq - when despite enlightened contemporary warnings and common sense the dominant political psyche stubbornly pursues the line 'If it's patently not working, do more of it'. Absolutely (if depressingly) compelling!
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 46 June 2008) |
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