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The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I Mass Market Paperback – August 3, 2004
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time
In this landmark account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players, Tuchman’s magnum opus is a classic for the ages.
The Proud Tower, the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Guns of August, and The Zimmermann Telegram comprise Barbara W. Tuchman’s classic histories of the First World War era
- Print length640 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPresidio Press
- Publication dateAugust 3, 2004
- Dimensions4.2 x 1.02 x 6.83 inches
- ISBN-100345476093
- ISBN-13978-0345476098
- Lexile measure1350L
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This book is about the first month of World War I, which determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world.
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One constant among the elements of 1914—as of any era—was the disposition of everyone on all sides not to prepare for the harder alternative, not to act upon what they suspected to be true.2,773 Kindle readers highlighted this
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Character is fate, the Greeks believed. A hundred years of German philosophy went into the making of this decision in which the seed of self-destruction lay embedded, waiting for its hour.2,531 Kindle readers highlighted this
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“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”2,519 Kindle readers highlighted this
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Germans had imbibed from 1870 the lesson that arms and war were the sole source of German greatness.2,063 Kindle readers highlighted this
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The impetus of existing plans is always stronger than the impulse to change.1,593 Kindle readers highlighted this
Editorial Reviews
Review
“More dramatic than fiction . . . a magnificent narrative—beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained.”—Chicago Tribune
“A fine demonstration that with sufficient art rather specialized history can be raised to the level of literature.”—The New York Times
“[The Guns of August] has a vitality that transcends its narrative virtues, which are considerable, and its feel for characterizations, which is excellent.”—The Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A Funeral
So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens—four dowager and three regnant—and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.
In the center of the front row rode the new king, George V, flanked on his left by the Duke of Connaught, the late king’s only surviving brother, and on his right by a personage to whom, acknowledged The Times, “belongs the first place among all the foreign mourners,” who “even when relations are most strained has never lost his popularity amongst us”—William II, the German Emperor. Mounted on a gray horse, wearing the scarlet uniform of a British Field Marshal, carrying the baton of that rank, the Kaiser had composed his features behind the famous upturned mustache in an expression “grave even to severity.” Of the several emotions churning his susceptible breast, some hints exist in his letters. “I am proud to call this place my home and to be a member of this royal family,” he wrote home after spending the night in Windsor Castle in the former apartments of his mother. Sentiment and nostalgia induced by these melancholy occasions with his English relatives jostled with pride in his supremacy among the assembled potentates and with a fierce relish in the disappearance of his uncle from the European scene. He had come to bury Edward his bane; Edward the arch plotter, as William conceived it, of Germany’s encirclement; Edward his mother’s brother whom he could neither bully nor impress, whose fat figure cast a shadow between Germany and the sun. “He is Satan. You cannot imagine what a Satan he is!”
This verdict, announced by the Kaiser before a dinner of three hundred guests in Berlin in 1907, was occasioned by one of Edward’s continental tours undertaken with clearly diabolical designs at encirclement. He had spent a provocative week in Paris, visited for no good reason the King of Spain (who had just married his niece), and finished with a visit to the King of Italy with obvious intent to seduce him from his Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria. The Kaiser, possessor of the least inhibited tongue in Europe, had worked himself into a frenzy ending in another of those comments that had periodically over the past twenty years of his reign shattered the nerves of diplomats.
Happily the Encircler was now dead and replaced by George who, the Kaiser told Theodore Roosevelt a few days before the funeral, was “a very nice boy” (of forty-five, six years younger than the Kaiser). “He is a thorough Englishman and hates all foreigners but I do not mind that as long as he does not hate Germans more than other foreigners.” Alongside George, William now rode confidently, saluting as he passed the regimental colors of the 1st Royal Dragoons of which he was honorary colonel. Once he had distributed photographs of himself wearing their uniform with the Delphic inscription written above his signature, “I bide my time.” Today his time had come; he was supreme in Europe.
Behind him rode the widowed Queen Alexandra’s two brothers, King Frederick of Denmark and King George of the Hellenes; her nephew, King Haakon of Norway; and three kings who were to lose their thrones: Alfonso of Spain, Manuel of Portugal and, wearing a silk turban, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria who annoyed his fellow sovereigns by calling himself Czar and kept in a chest a Byzantine Emperor’s full regalia, acquired from a theatrical costumer, against the day when he should reassemble the Byzantine dominions beneath his scepter.
Dazzled by these “splendidly mounted princes,” as The Times called them, few observers had eyes for the ninth king, the only one among them who was to achieve greatness as a man. Despite his great height and perfect horsemanship, Albert, King of the Belgians, who disliked the pomp of royal ceremony, contrived in that company to look both embarrassed and absentminded. He was then thirty-five and had been on the throne barely a year. In later years when his face became known to the world as a symbol of heroism and tragedy, it still always wore that abstracted look, as if his mind were on something else.
The future source of tragedy, tall, corpulent, and corseted, with green plumes waving from his helmet, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir of the old Emperor Franz Josef, rode on Albert’s right, and on his left another scion who would never reach his throne, Prince Yussuf, heir of the Sultan of Turkey. After the kings came the royal highnesses: Prince Fushimi, brother of the Emperor of Japan; Grand Duke Michael, brother of the Czar of Russia; the Duke of Aosta in bright blue with green plumes, brother of the King of Italy; Prince Carl, brother of the King of Sweden; Prince Henry, consort of the Queen of Holland; and the Crown Princes of Serbia, Rumania, and Montenegro. The last named, Prince Danilo, “an amiable, extremely handsome young man of delightful manners,” resembled the Merry Widow’s lover in more than name, for, to the consternation of British functionaries, he had arrived the night before accompanied by a “charming young lady of great personal attractions” whom he introduced as his wife’s lady in waiting with the explanation that she had come to London to do some shopping.
A regiment of minor German royalty followed: rulers of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Waldeck-Pyrmont, Saxe-Coburg Gotha, of Saxony, Hesse, Württemberg, Baden, and Bavaria, of whom the last, Crown Prince Rupprecht, was soon to lead a German army in battle. There were a Prince of Siam, a Prince of Persia, five princes of the former French royal house of Orléans, a brother of the Khedive of Egypt wearing a gold-tasseled fez, Prince Tsia-tao of China in an embroidered light-blue gown whose ancient dynasty had two more years to run, and the Kaiser’s brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, representing the German Navy, of which he was Commander in Chief. Amid all this magnificence were three civilian-coated gentlemen, M. Gaston-Carlin of Switzerland, M. Pichon, Foreign Minister of France, and former President Theodore Roosevelt, special envoy of the United States.
Edward, the object of this unprecedented gathering of nations, was often called the “Uncle of Europe,” a title which, insofar as Europe’s ruling houses were meant, could be taken literally. He was the uncle not only of Kaiser Wilhelm but also, through his wife’s sister, the Dowager Empress Marie of Russia, of Czar Nicolas II. His own niece Alix was the Czarina; his daughter Maud was Queen of Norway; another niece, Ena, was Queen of Spain; a third niece, Marie, was soon to be Queen of Rumania. The Danish family of his wife, besides occupying the throne of Denmark, had mothered the Czar of Russia and supplied kings to Greece and Norway. Other relatives, the progeny at various removes of Queen Victoria’s nine sons and daughters, were scattered in abundance throughout the courts of Europe.
Yet not family feeling alone nor even the suddenness and shock of Edward’s death—for to public knowledge he had been ill one day and dead the next—accounted for the unexpected flood of condolences at his passing. It was in fact a tribute to Edward’s great gifts as a sociable king which had proved invaluable to his country. In the nine short years of his reign England’s splendid isolation had given way, under pressure, to a series of “understandings” or attachments, but not quite alliances—for England dislikes the definitive—with two old enemies, France and Russia, and one promising new power, Japan. The resulting shift in balance registered itself around the world and affected every state’s relations with every other. Though Edward neither initiated nor influenced his country’s policy, his personal diplomacy helped to make the change possible.
Taken as a child to visit France, he had said to Napoleon III: “You have a nice country. I would like to be your son.” This preference for things French, in contrast to or perhaps in protest against his mother’s for the Germanic, lasted, and after her death was put to use. When England, growing edgy over the challenge implicit in Germany’s Naval Program of 1900, decided to patch up old quarrels with France, Edward’s talents as Roi Charmeur smoothed the way. In 1903 he went to Paris, disregarding advice that an official state visit would find a cold welcome. On his arrival the crowds were sullen and silent except for a few taunting cries of “Vivent les Boers!” and “Vive Fashoda!” which the King ignored. To a worried aide who muttered, “The French don’t like us,” he replied, “Why should they?” and continued bowing and smiling from his carriage.
Product details
- Publisher : Presidio Press (August 3, 2004)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 640 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0345476093
- ISBN-13 : 978-0345476098
- Lexile measure : 1350L
- Item Weight : 10.9 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.2 x 1.02 x 6.83 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in World War I History (Books)
- #3 in History Encyclopedias
- #70 in World History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (/ˈtʌkmən/; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Guns of August (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World War I, and Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971), a biography of General Joseph Stilwell.
Tuchman focused on writing popular history.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Customers find the writing quality highly competent and easy to learn from. They also appreciate the monumental job of research and interpretation. Readers describe the historical setting as fascinating, fresh, and timely. They appreciate the vivid insights into the personalities of protagonists. They describe the writing style as refreshingly terse and witty. However, some find the book boring, senseless, and lacking in maps.
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Customers find the writing quality of the book highly competent, remarkably detailed, and superb. They also say the story-telling is vivid and easy to learn from.
"...What I did love though was the sweep of the story as well as the many details that go into waging a war...." Read more
"Long book , but easy to read. Incredible details. Well researched." Read more
"...when a book such as this, extensively researched, and written in the highly competent way in which the very able Barbara W. Tuchman does, it is a..." Read more
"...The Guns of August is a fast paced engaging story that will hook any history lover...." Read more
Customers find the book comprehensive, revealing details, and well-indexed. They also say the prose is enthralling and paints a naturalistic portrait of the causes and the fighting. Readers say the book is one of the best sources for understanding the causes, movements, and mismanagement of large groups of men on the Western Front.
"...It's all true, and all documented, and even though it's a dense read, the huge cast of characters springs to life...." Read more
"Long book , but easy to read. Incredible details. Well researched." Read more
"...reading this book, and that was that when a book such as this, extensively researched, and written in the highly competent way in which the very..." Read more
"...One of the interesting features of the book was the brief introductions of the various players...." Read more
Customers find the historical setting fascinating, exciting, and fresh. They also say the author does a marvelous job putting together the events that lead up to this point in time. Readers also say that the book is able to portray cataclysmic events on a grand scale.
"Written in 1962, this is a fascinating history of the beginnings of WW1 and is the result of a vast amount of research...." Read more
"...This is a great read for any historian or reader who seeks to understand history!" Read more
"This is a supreme piece of historical writing as many others have said and I thoroughly recommend it, and give it five-stars on that basis...." Read more
"...The minute I picked up the book, I was fascinated by the new perspective and new insights it contains on those events...." Read more
Customers find the characterization fascinating and vivid, giving insights into the personalities of the protagonists.
"...documented, and even though it's a dense read, the huge cast of characters springs to life...." Read more
"...The story-telling is superb, the principal characters are vividly recreated...." Read more
"Exceedingly detailed and researched, the reader senses the characters' fear and indecision as they endure the first 45 days of WW I. Reading such..." Read more
"...Babara Tuchman wrote with the elan of a novelist, recreating historical figures so well they seem like familiar characters, even the most obscure...." Read more
Customers find the writing style refreshingly terse and witty. They also appreciate the pithy comments throughout the book. Customers also say the title is quite literal and the non-English accents are great. They say the book flows flawlessly.
"...Ms. Tuchman also had a sense of irony and humor and sometimes I found myself laughing out loud...." Read more
"...The title is quite literal...." Read more
"...prose style which is transparently clear, intelligent, controlled and witty". Perhaps witty, but to this reader not always transparently clear...." Read more
"Maybe it's a bit unfair, but this book's analysis is not holding well as we get a better and better understanding of the entirety of this..." Read more
Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some find the book fast and exciting, while others say it plods along at a fairly slow pace.
"...The book kept illustrating that, in war, timing is critical. The German plan was for a short war...." Read more
"...for this; her narration just becomes choppy/jerky and unlistenable at the one slow speed...." Read more
"...Nonetheless the story moved swiftly and its readers will be well served by its scholarly review and documentation...." Read more
"...Although comprehensive and remarkably detailed, this is a swift and exciting drama that draws the reader into a cyclone of actions and personalities..." Read more
Customers find the book contains so many details without apparent reason that it gets boring pretty quickly. They also say it runs together and has not much of a story to follow. They find it pretentious and boring, saying it's an excruciatingly detailed military history. Customers also say the war was senseless and annoying.
"...The entire escapade is rife with ineptitude, endless bickering among generals, confirmation bias, throwing good money after bad, and examples of..." Read more
"...I felt completely violated and defrauded that the battle itself was not described in detail. Was this Barbara a lady or a tease?..." Read more
"...Most problematic, there was simply too much detail, it was hard often to see any clear theme being drawn, like a pointillist version of a Pollack..." Read more
"...If there is a criticism to be made, it is that the story may be too "good" to be believed...." Read more
Customers find the maps in the book very poor, useless without zooming, and confusing. They also say the maps lack contrast and are awkward to read.
"...I recommend against the Guns paperback edition. The reprint of maps is terrible...." Read more
"...Secondly the maps are almost illegible with no discernible difference in shading of different armies, and two-page maps with the important areas..." Read more
"...maps are the exception: they suffer from the inclusion of confusing topographic features, and a lack of contrast due to their being rendered in..." Read more
"...There were several weaknesses, however. There were not enough maps, and what maps there were (I had an old used hardcover copy) were very hard to..." Read more
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There are maps in the book describing the battles. There are also photographs. But I must admit that I barely looked at the maps. And I found all the photos of the elderly generals very similar. What I did love though was the sweep of the story as well as the many details that go into waging a war. Previously, most war books I've read had to do with the experience of the soldiers. But this book is about the experience of making decisions, often based on folly. And it opened my eyes to how vulnerable the ordinary person is to the whims of the generals and the forces of pure chance. Ms. Tuchman also had a sense of irony and humor and sometimes I found myself laughing out loud.
The narrative of the month of August 1914 is described hour by hour. Belgium has to make a decision to accept an awful defeat or willingly allow the Germans to march through their neutral territory. There are alliances in place that are just waiting to be broken. The Russians come into the war. So do the British, even though it is with much reluctance. The basic war is between France and Germany, almost a continuation of the defeat the French suffered at the hands of the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.
Before I read this book, I didn't know much about WW1. Now I do. It was a war that defined the breakdown of the European nobility and set the stage for the next war, which was even more horrific. It taught me a lot, especially about how many people wind up dying because of the quest for power. It saddened me too because this quest for power is basic. So is the folly of mankind. The only thing that has changed is technology.
This book is a masterful work. It lays the groundwork for an understanding of the mechanics of war. I might not remember all of the names of the generals or the battle plans. But I will always remember the feeling of being right there, watching the decisions being made, marching for miles in spite of fatigue, handling the big guns, making courageous decisions that sometimes led to disaster. And, especially, knowing that this is the true face of war. Highly recommended.
The Guns of August is a powerful book never the less, in that is describing the first month of World War 1, but it does it at a higher level of command, not that tragedies and juicy tidbits are not to be found, it is still a sublime effort that deserved the author the Pulitzer Prize, but I had no connection with it in an emotional way, like I have had with incredible books about war I read lately, Flags of our Fathers being a clear example of what I am trying to say, which is without a doubt, one of the finest books I have read on the subject of war, and another clear example of the what the Marines mean to this country. The Guns of August is more like a global approach with the machinations of the generals and leaders, as they deployed their forces to accomplish their strategic plans that will lead them to victory. For those who are studious enough I am sure this powerhouse of a book would be very fulfilling. On the other hand, for those who prefer a more personal approach on a well written book, then this title would not deliver that. 4 Stars.
Top reviews from other countries
While it is very much "non-fiction" and, in many ways, "a history book", it is very well written, and very readable. Some of the sentences / paragraphs are incredibly well crafted, and you'll probably learn some new words along the way e.g. tatterdemalion. I loved that one.
The level / depth of research behind this book is phenomenal, and to think this 500 pages + represents only the first month of a 4 yrs + war.
For me, it has done a few things.
First, I feel much more informed about the reasons for the onset of WW1. I had previously heard that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the most important cause for the start of WW1, but I now know that was really only a part of the story. This book outlines the extent to which Germany had been "planning" war, and talking about extending its reach/influence through war, for many years before 1914. I personally had no idea that this was such an important factor or so openly discussed in Germany prior to the war. It also makes an important connection back to a war in 1870, which isn't covered in detail but is clearly a major factor.
Second, I now feel better informed about the role Britain played at the start of the war or, to be more precise, the role it didn't play in that first month. As a nation we're brought-up to think we played a huge role in both world wars and, while this isn't disputed as a whole, it seems we didn't entirely cover ourselves in glory in that first month (notwithstanding the fact that we did send thousands of troops, when no other core European nation did, with the exception of Russia).
Third, I wasn't really clear how Belgium came into being, and I'm now much clearer on that. I also have a renewed respect for Belgium and the way they stood-up to the initial invasion, in the face of certain defeat, in 1914. Inspiring stuff.
Finally, it has reinforced the importance of communication, relationships and trust in any large-scale human endeavour. That these were, in large parts at least, missing on the Allied side in the first month of the war seems clear, though the communication piece can be partly ascribed to the lack of modern technology. It also brings home the fact that, sometimes, "you get what you prepare for" and that, if you prepare enough for bad things to happen, you can sometimes make them happen. That's how it felt to me anyhow.
My only criticism is that, at times, I found it extremely difficult to keep in my head the various individuals, battle fronts, town names and situations. At certain points the author gets into such depths on these points that I got lost, and couldn't keep that multi-dimensional view in my head. Probably others will do better.
But, overall, I'd highly recommend this book. It's obviously very old (1960s I think), but, as a clear account of that first terrible month, it is excellent to read and very informative indeed. It has left wanting to learn more about WW1, though I'm not sure the next 4 yrs make for particularly happy reading (especially not in the middle of a pandemic...)











