Customer Reviews

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

I loved The Proud Tower. I wish that all History books were this interesting and informative. The book, as it's subtitle suggests is Ms. Tuchman's portrait of the world in the years leading to the First World War. It is cultural history, political history, biography and more. The book is divided into sections covering the years 1890-1914 in England, France, Germany, and the U.S. It also covers social, political, and cultural movements like Anarchism, Socialism and The Hague Peace Conference. Each section is it's own treasure and made me wish Ms. Tuchman had written an entire book on her various subjects. Many of them were new to me; such as Thomas B. Reed, the U.S. Speaker of the House around the turn of the last century, or the Anarchist movement in Europe and America. Some of the topics were more familiar, like the Dreyfus Affair in France, but no less interesting in her hands. This is a great book!!! Try it and see.

Nobody can write history like Barbara Tuchman, and this one is a dazzling masterpiece. The period it covers is arguably the most critical ever, because it's about the run up to World War I. And WWI is at the root of all the grief of the 20th century, and it ain't over yet. So you find so many moments when you are saying "jeez if that just didn't happen...." or "damn! if it had just gone the other way..." - all the while knowing of course that you are on the deadly roller coaster to the world's stupidest war, and it's gonna happen.
But oh wow, the stories Barbara can tell! Fascinating cast of characters, the major stars, the supporting cast, and the ordinary folks, how they react what they are thinking. Lots of surprises too, at least for me- people you have heard of before in very different contexts popping up here, either trying to make the war happen or trying to stop it.
And then, the stuff you did hear about before, but maybe never really understood very well, she will tell you all about it. The intricate plots and schemes, the "Dear Nicky" letters, the death of Juares, and the absolutely best presentation I ever read of the Dreyfus case.
This is history, and history writing, at its very best. Don't miss it.

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.

I have always believed that one of the great questions of the 20th century has been what were the underlying causes of the First World War.I don't believe there was a greater watershed of events in the 20th century. From the chaos emerged the totalitarian state and hence the nearly 80 year struggle with Western Democracy. Barbara Tuchman doesn't try to answer why Europe happily plunged into a four year bloodbath(maybe no one can)but her book takes a good look at the 25 years prior to the war. Contrary to popular belief,pre-World War One society wasn't a peacefull,contented world. From the Anarchist movement to the horrible conditions of the poor and to the terrible racist divisions in France durning the Dreyfus Affair,Tuchman shows that this world was on the brink of collaspe. It was only a question of whether its death would be a slow drawn out affair(where a peacefull,evolutionary replacement could be born) or a violent,revolutionary one. Unfortunately we know the answer.From World War I came Lenin,Stalin,Hitler and the deaths of close to 100 million people. This most violent of centuries was born in the blood of World War I. Read The Proud Tower to begin to understand the history of the 20th Century.

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.

If you have no experience of Barbara Tuchman and contemplate reading The Proud Tower, expect a treat. The lady brings history alive in a way few can.

The story of the West as the 19th Century turned into the 20th is one of pride going before a fall on the grand scale. This book is a paean to the splendid Old World that gave us the advances, luxuries, conceits, certainties, calculations and misconceptions that resulted in the World Wars. A wealth of detail and well-chosen specific cases bring those cultures and people alive on the page.

What was the Dreyfus Affair? How did British labor relations come to be what they are today? What was it about the German Kaiser that pissed off everybody? The echoes of those issues can still be heard today because the underlying realities haven't changed much. Dreyfus was much more about official malfeasance and pettiness than anti-Semitism. Class hostility, essentially unknown in the US, bedevils labor relations in modern England as a century ago. German arrogance (and French jealousy) is muted but has not disappeared.

This book shows the timelessness of issues that arise from national characteristics which, in turn, are derivations of traits common to all peoples. It's not in fashion these days to speak of such things - stereotypes - but French, English and German ingenuity and arrogance, in ways peculiar to each nation, built the proud, towering edifice of Western civilization and then degenerated into the slaughter of the world wars. Yin and yang, the good and the bad, Apollonian and Dyonisian, creating and destroying at the same time.

Were the world wars inevitable? Probably. Will mankind ever get beyond catastrophic war? Perhaps, if the communications revolution lives up to its promise. Had the co-constructors of the Proud Tower been able sincerely to see themselves as others saw them, it's possible their pride would have worked toward accommodation rather than confrontation. That sort of thing has a better chance of happening in the Information Age than ever before. But if Heidegger, Nietzsche et al are correct, we're doomed to this cycle. The more one sees of multiculturalism, encouraging people as it does to be suspicious of others rather than open and friendly, the more one doubts we'll ever get off this merry-go-round of build and destroy, build and destroy.

Tuchman provides a front-row seat onto the world theater of 1900-1914, and it makes absorbing, instructive reading.

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.

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.

Perhaps the most readable historian of the 20th Century, the venerable Barbara Tuchman set out to explore democracy, social division, poltics, and economics in the US and Europe in the quarter-century before the first world war.

Her product, The Proud Tower (title from Poe's 'City in the Sea')is fast becoming a classic, not only for crisp writing and insightful commentary, but also for good organization and a high degree of accessibility.

Most of us think we know about this not so long ago era. Wasn't the zenith of colonialism and great power politics a "classical moment" of stability, a "gilded age" of ragtime, economic growth, and massive social improvements wrought by technology?

It was anything but, as Tuchman clearly shows. It was a world riven by terrorism, social discord, prejudice, and scandal. It only appeared appealing in hindsight after the horror of the Great War.

THE PROUD TOWER has a riveting quality as it proceeds, country by country, to examine overlapping events. The writing will have you morbidly fascinated as the Great Powers rush towards epoch-ending destruction.

A must for any armchair historian.