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The PROUD TOWER (Hardcover)

~ Barbara W. Tuchman (Author) "THE LAST government in the Western world to possess all the attributes of aristocracy in working condition took office in England in June of 1895..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Lord Salisbury, New York (more...)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

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Hardcover Hardcover Available from these sellers. Published January 1, 1966	--		$45.20	$4.00
Paperback Paperback $12.24 In Stock. Published August 27, 1996	$12.24		$10.89	$4.32

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it."
--Barbara W. Tuchman
The fateful quarter-century leading up to the World War I was a time when the world of Privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of Protest was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate. The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.
In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman bings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted Hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.
"Tuchman [was] a distinguished historian who [wrote] her books with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish. . . . It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration."
--The New York Times
"Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding, eschewing both the sweeping generalizations of a Toynbee and the minute-by-minute simplicisms of a Walter Lord."
--Time
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

THE PROUD TOWER by Barbara Tuchman examines the Western World of approximately 100 years ago. Technologically the world was a very different from today, but the strifes between economic groups and among nations bears many similarities to our own time. Tuchman examines the economic, social, political, and technological world of the period 1890-1914. By this period, the United States had become an important player in world affairs. The Haymarket Affair in Chicago fueled the development of international anarchism which led to the assasinations of political figures in Russia, Italy, France and lastly President McKinley in the United States. Tuchman's unraveling of the the Dreyfus Affair is, in itself, worth the price of the book. In THE PROUD TOWER Tuchman describes the western world that exploded into The Great War (which she describes in THE GUNS OF AUGUST).

Randy Hickernell, Ballantine Sales Rep. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (January 1, 1966)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0026203006
ISBN-13: 978-0026203005
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #609,443 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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First Sentence:
THE LAST government in the Western world to possess all the attributes of aristocracy in working condition took office in England in June of 1895. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Lord Salisbury, New York, House of Lords, Lloyd George, House of Commons, Prince of Wales, Nineteenth Century, Home Rule, Minister of War, Keir Hardie, Anatole France, Boer War, King Edward, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Dreyfus Affair, Lord Rosebery, Parliament Bill, Captain Mahan, Second International, Don Quixote, Great Britain, Secret File, Duke of Devonshire

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 41 books:

Newer Ideals of Peace by Jane Addams on page 312, and Index
Soul of Man Under Socialism by Oscar Wilde on page 87, and Index
Human Nature in Politics (Social Science Classics) by Graham Wallas on page 416, and Back Matter
The Naval War Of 1812 by Theodore Roosevelt on page 131, and Index
Barrack-Room Ballads (Early Best Sellers) by Rudyard Kipling on page 34, and Index

See all 41 books this book cites

100 books cite this book:

CliffsAP English Language and Composition (Cliffs AP) by Barbara V. Swovelin on 4 pages
Themes in Modern European History 1890-1945 (One World Archaeology) by Paul Hayes on 4 pages
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Traitors: The Worst Acts of Treason in American History from Benedict Arnold to Robert Hans by Richard Sale on 4 pages
John Oman and his Doctrine of God by Stephen Bevans in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	71% buy the item featured on this page: The PROUD TOWER 4.2 out of 5 stars (39)
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	6% buy A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century 4.4 out of 5 stars (111) $12.89
	6% buy A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918 4.8 out of 5 stars (67) $14.28

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Customer Reviews

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77 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Different Take on World War I, August 18, 2004

By	D. C. Cannon "dcannon661" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (Paperback)

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.

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60 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An excellent preface to "The Guns of August", November 6, 2004

By	S. McCrea "s_mccrea" (Henderson, NV United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (Paperback)

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.

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great History books of all time, December 26, 1998

By	rufusmaxx@worldnet.att.net (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (Paperback)

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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening but ultimately diffuse
Just finished this because my next book, THE GUNS OF AUGUST, falls right into place. I'm new to Tuchman but found the essays here to be interesting but ultimately a better windup... Read more

Published 11 months ago by S. Henderson

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic history of the years leading up to World War I
Barbara Tuchman's books on World War I are classics and ought to be on the shelves of anyone who is a student of History for the time period prior to and during World War I. Read more

Published 17 months ago by R. Vosburg

5.0 out of 5 stars A Little Known Period With Facinating Characters
One of the things I love about Barbara Tuchman is her ability to bring people in history to life for me. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Jennifer McKenzie

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting take on pre WWI Germany
The Chapter on Germany deals mainly with arts and humanities, mainly through a focus on Richard Strauss. Read more

Published on January 26, 2008 by MG

5.0 out of 5 stars Dry, but VERY informative
I purchased this book with a bit of hesitancy. I have a love/hate relationship with Barbara Tuchman's works. Read more

Published on January 22, 2008 by Thomas J. Vit Jr.

4.0 out of 5 stars Overall pretty good...
Each chapter is really just an essay on some aspect of society between the years 1890-1914. There are eight essays each about 60 pages long on various topics like the patricians... Read more

Published on December 22, 2007 by A.G. West

4.0 out of 5 stars Forceful and Mostly Brilliant
Barbara Tuchman's work shows her brilliance as an historian. Having read nearly all of her works, this one is less a linear narrative than a non-linear analysis of events that... Read more

Published on September 24, 2007 by Mark A. Moorstein

5.0 out of 5 stars Brillian Style, as Always...
Tuchman was more a writer than an historian and that shows in every one of her books, but that is not a reason for not to read her, but on the contrary, to do it with deligh. Read more

Published on July 25, 2007 by Fernando Villegas

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and unparalleled
I am more convinced than ever that Barbara Tuchman was the greatest historian of the 20th century. I cannot think of anyone who can outmatch her. Read more

Published on March 9, 2007 by Andrew C. LING

2.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly confused work from Tuchman
I'll mention that I am a fan of Tuchman's work, from "The Guns of August" to "The Calamitous Forteenth Century" to "the Zimmerman Telegram", her works are amongst the most... Read more

Published on October 15, 2006 by Chris

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