The Guns of August

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman  658 pp.

This book about the lead up to and the first month of World War I won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962. It's hard to fathom just how much occurred during the brief time following the death of Edward VII and the beginning of the war and in the first month of hostilities. Tuchman pulled no punches when it came to portraying the arrogance and selfishness of those in command on both sides and the deadly retaliation by the Germans on anyone who opposed them. The Germans thought defeating France and Belgium would take a matter of days. France, Belgium, and Britain proved to be a stronger adversary than expected in spite of the infighting among commanders. I listened to the audio version and it was helpful to have a map of Belgium and France handy to understand where things were happening.

The Guns of August / Barbara Tuchman, 606 pp.

It's easy to see why this 1962 work, outlining the first month of WWI, is still so popular.  Although the prevailing image of that war is of long, static years in the trenches, Tuchman lays out the action-packed beginning of the conflict and the circumstances which led to the later stalemate.

Told from the point of view of the politicians and generals who directed the action, this is amazingly suspenseful stuff.  I love Tuchman's flair with language:

Joffre arrived early at Laon...to lend him sangfroid out of his own bottomless supply...

With their relentless talent for the tactless, the Germans chose to violate Luxembourg at a place whose...name was Trois Vierges (three virgins)...


Rennenkampf...could not, fling himself after the fleeing enemy to pluck the final victory...

And if Tuchman makes frequent use of received cliches about the national characteristics of the various players - the Germans are rigid and brutal, the French passionate and prone to bursting into tears, the Russians sloppy and powerful, and the English self-interested and perfidious- she balances this out with an immense amount of detail about each of the many actors in this drama so that the effect is lively and (almost) fun.