Describe About Books The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
| Title | : | The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 |
| Author | : | Barbara W. Tuchman |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 588 pages |
| Published | : | August 27th 1996 by Ballantine Books (first published 1966) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. War. World War I. European History |
Barbara W. Tuchman
Paperback | Pages: 588 pages Rating: 4.12 | 7256 Users | 463 Reviews
Narrative Supposing Books The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
During the fateful quarter century leading up to World War I, the climax of a century of rapid, unprecedented change, a privileged few enjoyed Olympian luxury as the underclass was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.” In The Proud Tower, Barbara W. Tuchman brings the era to vivid life: the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy; the Anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; the Peace Conferences in The Hague; and the enthusiasm and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized by the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the night the Great War began and an epoch came to a close.
Be Specific About Books To The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
| Original Title: | The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914 |
| ISBN: | 0345405013 (ISBN13: 9780345405012) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating About Books The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
Ratings: 4.12 From 7256 Users | 463 ReviewsPiece About Books The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
Back in high school (not for high school, just during), I read A Distant Mirror and was very impressed. So when I saw this on the shelf at the library, I snagged it.This is...an odd book. On the paragraph level, the writing is first rate. The scholarship is excellent. But the overall book is rather disjointed. There's no overarching thesis or storyline, so it ends up just being "here are some things that were important that happened in some countries that were important in this time span". EachWe humans like to think that there are single moments in our lives and in history around which the rest of history pivots. The point of these pivots is that they explain not only what comes after, but (and not unlike my new reading glasses) also snaps into focus all that went before. Suddenly the world makes sense. Strangely enough I don't think this was the experience the world had with the First World War although it probably ought to have been. The war was so terrible (in the sense of
Europeans (and some Americans) who were alive as the 19th century came to a close were aware that they were living in a unique time. The French even coined a term for it, fin de siècle. In her foreword, Tuchman notes that fin de siècle often connotes decadence, but she explains that western society was not decaying so much as it was bursting with new tensions and accumulated energies as the 19th century closed and the 20th century began. THE PROUD TOWER is Tuchmans account of these new tensions
With this work, Ms. Tuchman reminds me that she is one of the greatest historians to write in the English language. She admirably described those years that could very well have led to a previously unexperienced level of social enlightenment, yet instead led to decades of previously unexperienced horrors. Occasionally, I think about what the air felt like in 1913 Berlin; what would my thoughts for the future have felt like then? What relevance, if any, does that have for my thoughts today? I was
This is a book that I read many years ago, liked enough to keep and have now had time to re-read.Though we think of our own time as one of great change, there was a feeling in the air at the end of the 19th century that will never again be experienced. It was a combination of innocence, wonder and anxiety produced by capitalism as technology and industry recreated the world.The innocence came from a still powerful religious sense along with a strong idea of how things should be. But the lives
This is a book that I read many years ago, liked enough to keep and have now had time to re-read.Though we think of our own time as one of great change, there was a feeling in the air at the end of the 19th century that will never again be experienced. It was a combination of innocence, wonder and anxiety produced by capitalism as technology and industry recreated the world.The innocence came from a still powerful religious sense along with a strong idea of how things should be. But the lives
It is a thankless job to write a book about the origins of a widespread conflagration such as the First World War. Where is one to draw the line? Where author Barbara Tuchman apparently drew it was the countries of Western Europe -- Britain, France, and Germany -- plus the United States. But what about the view from St. Petersburg or Vienna or even Istanbul? It is all well and good to talk about the rise of international socialism, but what about all the energies released by the decay of the
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