Tuchman's book, though not in North America, was a very enlightening history of the beginning of World War I. I found it fascinating; it was written in a way that read like a novel, with character sketches, humour, and sarcasm. And yet it is a record, a history, of the events and happenings of those first few months (primarily the first month). It was a readable history. So much of the history we all get to read is written to be so dry. Tuchman actually made an engrossing history book.
I think the invasion of Belgium, and the needless political puffery that caused the war in the first place, were the parts that impacted me the most. The arrogance of the politicians in feeling that war would somehow be a noble resolution of their differences. The slow, creeping realization that the war would not be over quickly.
My blogging of this book comes on the tail end of reading a National Geographic article about the underground 'cities' of the front line in World War I - the quarries excavated out behind the trenches, with soldiers living underground for weeks at a time in damp conditions, listening for tunneling soldiers from the other side set to bomb their enemies. Carving their lives into the soft chalk. It was the life of so many millions of soldiers for so many years.
Tuchman's book gave me a better understanding of the political personalities, military tactics and decisions that led to the horrid near-stalemate that was much of the first World War. National Geographic added the humanity of the soldiers to this picture. The two reads complimented each other. In the vast numbers of casualties and wounded that one sees when studying WWI, we must always remember that each one of those millions was a person of their own, with a family, parents, children perhaps, a wife maybe. A dream.
Title: The Guns of August
Published: 1962 (my copy is a crap 1980s paperback)
Pages: 489
Total books blogged: 16
Total pages: 5474
