De trotse toren: een portret van de jaren voor de eeerste Wereldoorlog 1890-1914

by Barbara W. Tuchman, J.F. Kliphuis (Translator)

During the fateful quarter century leading up to World War I, the climax of a century of rapid, unprecedented change, a privileged few enjoyed 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 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War I, European History, Politics, War, World History

678 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 1965

About the author

Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, historian, won a Pulitzer Prize for The Guns of August (1962) and for Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971).

As an author, Tuchman focused on popular production. Her clear, dramatic storytelling covered topics as diverse as the 14th century and World War I and sold millions of copies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara...

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the Great 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 Tuchman, The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914

How do you follow up a major success in life?

It’s a question I seldom ask myself. My last success was finishing the final two episodes of both The Night Of and Stranger Things in a single night, while drinking a $9 handle of rum and avoiding the sidelong glances of my pregnant wife, who is due any day. That’s the kind of success you only follow up with divorce.

Barbara Tuchman certainly had to answer that query. In 1962, she published The Guns of August, one of the most widely acclaimed works of history ever written. It won the Pulitzer Prize. It was a popular success. It is said that Kennedy read it during the Cuban Missile Crisis. So, what do you do when your book has made you famous, wealthy, and also saved the world from nuclear war?

How do you come up with an encore?

In figurative terms, you don’t. The Guns of August is her masterpiece, and it makes a pretty decent headliner for anyone’s obituary.

In literal terms - well, read on.

I know what I would've done. If I’d been Tuchman, I likely would have taken my Pulitzer to the beach and spent the rest of my days drinking cheap rum paid for with royalty checks. Or I might have pumped out a sequel about the second month of World War I called The Guns of September.

Tuchman didn't do either of these things. She didn't do anything, really. Instead, of a fresh masterpiece, Tuchman's next catalogue entry is the literary version of a sit com's clip show. The Proud Tower, the chronological follow-up to The Guns of August, is a collection of eight previously-published essays written by Tuchman. The only original writing is a three page Forward that tries to reverse engineer a thesis.

In terms of content, I don’t think this is much of an issue for today’s reader. I doubt many of us have seen the original articles elsewhere. Certainly, this is my first exposure to any of them. This isn’t like picking up Lawrence Wright’s newest book and finding out it’s just his New Yorker articles, which I read as they were originally printed.

In terms of being a satisfying book, though, I’m not sure The Proud Tower entirely succeeds. It is, at the very least, misleading as to its intentions.

The subtitle of The Proud Tower is A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914. Right from the cover, you are lead to believe this is a predecessor – in spirit if not in fact – to The Guns of August.

But it’s not. The Guns of August focused intently on August 1914 and the opening weeks of the Great War. The Proud Tower, on the other hand, is all over the place, hopping, skipping, and jumping from one topic to the next. It does not provide a portrait, a holistic vision, so much as it gives us an assortment of snapshots. Moreover, Tuchman’s interpretation of “world” is narrowly defined to mean – for the most part – Western Europe and the United States. (It’s the same bias Tuchman displayed in The Guns of August, where she barely mentioned the Balkans, despite the war having sprung from there). Most importantly, the shadow of World War I is hardly mentioned at all.

The topics in Tuchman’s eight essays – here, they become chapters – feel randomly drawn. She has two chapters on Great Britain, both focusing on the shift of power away from the patricians (embodied in the House of Lords) and into the hands of the common people (embodied by the Liberal alliance with Labour). The first Great Britain chapter focuses on Lord Salisbury, and gets a bit tedious. The second chapter, about the de-fanging of the House of Lords, is much brisker and alive with political maneuvering.

In “The Idea and the Deed”, Tuchman provides a fascinating survey of the Anarchist movement. Like Socialists, Anarchists were looking to foment a revolution. Unlike Socialists, Anarchists (being anarchists) were against organization, training, discipline, etc. Instead, they wanted to spark the revolution by spontaneous acts of violence. Tuchman always had a keen eye for comparing historical movements from one time period to another. She would have appreciated how familiar the Anarchist tactics feel today in light of modern terrorist tactics.

The chapter on America, entitled “End of a Dream” points the spotlight on Thomas Reed, a Maine Republican who served as a powerful Speaker of the House. Reed tried to stop America from turnign into an imperial. It was a struggle he lost following American successes (and land acquisitions) in the Spanish-American War. This was the moment America went from a proud non-colonial power to an aggressively-grasping empire that mimicked the old order of Europe. Frankly, I’d never heard of Reed, so I appreciated Tuchman bringing her biographical gift to this man, a turn of the century titan who has slipped somewhat into obscurity.

Tuchman’s essay on France centers on l’affaire Dreyfus. The Dreyfus Affair began in 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer, was convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans. The trial and conviction were seen by many (rightly) as a sham, and motivated by Dreyfus’s Jewish heritage. The affair dragged on until 1906 and became a cause célèbre. On the one side, you had the moral might of the government and military, which held itself beyond reproach. On the other, you had celebrity activists such as Emile Zola who wrote the famous open letter, J’accuse, that pressured the government to reopen the case.

In “The Steady Drummer”, Tuchman discusses the Hague Conferences in 1899 and 1907. The conventions that came out of these talks attempted to codify the conduct of warfare. It touched on issues such as protection for civilians (and their property) and treatment of prisoners-of-war. Despite a lot of foot dragging among the great powers, who did not want other countries to constrain their abilities in time of war, Tuchman presents the Hague Conferences as relative successes. Indeed, as she notes, in one of her rare references to the looming Great War, a third conference had been scheduled for 1914. It never occurred.

The oddest chapter is entitled “Neroism is in the Air”. Here, Tuchman goes on a rather lengthy tangent about Richard Strauss, the German composer and conductor. I’m not much of an opera guy, which is to say, I don’t care at all about operas. Thus, I was predisposed not to care much about this subject. Even if I loved opera, there’s only so much you can read about music, before you just need to listen to it.

Tuchman concludes The Proud Tower with an article on Jean Jaures. The French Jaures was an influential leader of the Socialist movement. His murder on the eve of World War I ensured that the Socialist movement would support their respective countries’ march to war. Without Jaures, the Socialists became – at least for a minute – as ardent nationalists as any. Freed from the threat of strikes or opposition, the governments of the belligerent nations were free to do as they pleased. Unfortunately, they desired war.

As you can see, there is no cohering element to these various chapters. Accordingly, there is an unevenness inherent to the proceedings. Nothing connects one chapter to the next. They don’t inform each other or build to a thesis statement. Tuchman does not deliver any sort of final judgment on the world before the war. Rather, she is making a bunch of random observations. Anarchists are violent! Strauss composes excellent operas!

I liked The Proud Tower on the strength of its best essays. Tuchman writes at her usual high level, with erudition, dry wit, and perceptive characterizations. However, I couldn’t help but feel this book is more of a placeholder in Tuchman’s canon than anything else.

Anyone picking this up in expectation of a prequel to her WWI classic will be disappointed. Despite the alleged thematic similarities, the two books are worlds apart. The Guns of August is driven by a strong narrative. The Proud Tower is a loose gathering of unrelated topical essays. This book, for all its qualities, feels like a way to keep up a revenue stream while Tuchman labored on a real project. If that’s the case, it worked. Her next book after The Proud Tower, a biography on Vinegar Joe Stilwell, also won the Pulitzer Prize. Sandwiched between two critical successes, The Proud Tower is a relative disappointment in Tuchman’s bibliography.

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

برج فرازان اثر خانم باربارا تاکمن کتابی ایست که به بررسی زندگی ، جامعه و نظام سیاسی اروپا و آمریکا در سالهای آخر قرن نوزده و سالهای ابتدایی قرن بیستم می پردازد ، همین طور با دقت و وسواس زیاد که از خانم تاکمن انتظار می رود به ریشه یابی دلایل جنگ جهانی اول از دل همین جوامع اروپایی پرداخته و نگاهی ریزبینانه به گسترش قدرت جنگ طلبان می اندازد . در حقیقت خانم تاکمن با مطرح کردن دلایل زیاد ، به خواننده کتاب پاسخ این پرسش را میدهد که چگونه این دلایل دست به دست هم داده و باعث اولین جنگ جهانی شدند .
کتاب هشت فصل دارد که سعی می کنم خلاصه برداشت خودم را از فصل ها بیان کنم:
فصل اول مربوط به آنارشیست هاست ، این که چگونه آنها به خصوص در ایتالیا ، اسپانیا و فرانسه قدرت گرفتند ، عقیده و مرام آنها گسترش یافت ، با چه قدرتی پادشاه ایتالیا ، نخست وزیر اسپانیا و رییس جمهور آمریکا را ترور کردند ، مرامنامه آنها چه بود ؟ در چه جوامعی با چه مشخصاتی رشد کردند ، خانم تاکمن به همه این سوالات پاسخ می دهد.

کشور انگلستان به عنوان قویترین قدرت آن زمان موضوع فصل دوم کتاب است ، زندگی اشرافی لردها ، عصر ویکتوریا ، پادشاه جدید ، پارلمان انگلستان ، اثر گذاری لردها ، نوع پوشش آنها ، عادت های آنها مانند شکار ( زندگی این لردها که هیچ کاری نمی کنند ولی عملا همه کاره و صاحب کشور هستند در سریال داون تان ابی به خوبی نشان داده شده ، این که جناب لرد برای جنگ به فرانسه نمی رود ولی در ملک اشرافی خود با لباس نظامی می گردد !) این که این لردها صاحب همه قدرت وثروت هستند و مردم عادی به خصوص طبقه کارگر هیچ چیزی از خود ندارد . اما در آن سالها کم کم این روال عوض می شود . خانم تاکمن چگونگی آن را به خواننده نشان می دهد .

فصل سوم آمریکا قدرت جدید را بررسی می کند ، این که این کشور چگونه دارد پوست اندازی می کند و از کشوری منزوی ، چگونه تبدیل به قدرتی مداخله گر می شود ، چگونه اسپانیا قدرت قدیم را از کوبا و فیلیپین اخراج می کند و خود جای آن را می گیرد ، چگونه پا در پای انگلستان می گذارد ، به تقویت قدرت نظامی خود می پردازد این که کسانی که خواهان رابطه سیاسی مداخله جویانه هستند مانند تئودورروزولت ، چگونه بر جناح دیگر جمهوری خواهان اصیل پیروز می شوند . این که آمریکا کم کم به این غول بی شاخ و دم و این هیولایی که ما امروز آن را می بینیم تبدیل می شود در قلم خانم تاکمن آشکار است .

فصل چهارم درباره قدرت استعماری دیگر اروپا یعنی فرانسه است ، زندگی در فرانسه و پاریس زیبا بعد از افتتاح نماشگاه بین المللی و برج ایفل ، اتحاد نظامی فرانسه با روسیه ، نزدیک شدن آن به انگلستان ، زندگی لوکس پاریسی ها ، حتی کافه های پاریس که محل اجتماع روشن فکرها بودند ،ترس روزمره از آلمان و این که چگونه اراده کشور به سمت جنگ می رود ، خانم تاکمن با صبر و حوصله فراوان برای خواننده بازگو می کند .

فصل پنجم در مورد تاسیس دیوان لاهه به در خواست نیکلای دوم تزار روسیه است ، این که تزار در کشور خود با مشت آهنین حکومت می کند و صدای مخالف را در جا خفه می کند ، اما در سطح بین الملل خواهان شنیده شدن صدای همه کشورهای جهان می شود ، نظری که اگرچه اجرا می شود اما کسی آنرا جدی نمی گیرد ، خود تزار هم کم کم توسط توده های مردم جارو می شود .

فصل بعدی قدرت تازه نفس جدید اروپا یعنی آلمان است ، در این فصل خانم تاکمن اطلاعات فراوان خود در مورد موسیقی را به رخ خواننده می کشد ، او اپراهای آلمان ، موسیقی دانان آلمان ، این که منشا و ذات این نوع موسیقی چیست ، آلمانی که دارد در اروپا الگو می شود ، نظم آهنینی که بنا شده ، کارخانه های جدید ، طبقه کارگری که مرفه تر از همتایان فرانسوی و انگلیسی خود هستند ، نیروی دریایی جدید که ناوگان انگلستان را به چالش می کشد ، این که کشور با سرعت سرسام آوری مسلح می شود و به سمت جنگی می رود که نتیجه آن برای همه واضح است .

فصل هفتم انتقال قدرت در انگلستان است ، این که چگونه انگلستان از عصر ویکتوریا خارج می شود ، چگونه کارگران در پارلمان صاحب کرسی می شوند ، چگونه حزب کارگر تاسیس می شود و این که هیچ کدام از این موضوعات باعث تغییر سیاست های استعماری بریتانیا نمی شود ، در روی همان پاشنه می چرخد .
فصل آخر در مورد ژان ژورس انترناسیونالیست معروف و بنیانگذار حزب سوسیالیست فرانسه است ، ژورس رهبر معنوی تمام سوسیالیست های اروپا و جهان و فعال ضد جنگ بود . وجود او مانند ترمزی بسیار قوی قدرت و شتاب جنگ را می گرفت . ترور ژورس که به صورت کامل در ��تاب خانواده تیبو آمده ، آخرین عامل ضد جنگ را از بین برد و زمینه را برای جنگ اول مهیا کرد .

برج فرازان به نظر من در رتبه ای پایین تر از کتابهای دیگر خانم تاکمن مانند توپ های ماه اوت یا تاریخ بی خردی قرار می گیرد و خواننده ممکن است فصلهایی مانند انتقال قدرت یا در حال و هوای نرونیسم را خسته کننده بیابد . در حقیقت خانم تاکمن اطلاعات بسیار زیادی را به خواننده ای انتقال داده که مانند من ممکن است چیزی در مورد اپرا یا نتهای موسیقی نداند و یا اصولا تصویب فلان لایحه در پارلمان انگلیس برایش مهم نباشد .

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

اگر به کتاب‌های تاریخی علاقه دارید خُب این کتاب میتونه اطلاعات وسیعی با جزییات بسیاری از جهان قبل جنگ جهانی اول در اختیارتون قرار بده. اطلاعات خوبی میتونید ازش دریافت کنید ولی خواندنش نیاز به تمرکز بالایی داره و حوصله‌ی خیلی زیاد! چیزی که برام خیلی جالب بود تاثیر نویسندگان و هنرمندان در مسائل سیاسی روز ، بخصوص امیل زولا و جریان دادگاهش و ... در نکته‌ی جالب دیگه اینکه آلمان در عرصه‌ی نویسندگی چیز زیادی برای گفتن نداشته ولی در زمینه‌ی موسیقی چرا! که طبیعتا برای همین بزرگترین استادان را به جهان تقدیم کرده. در کل کتاب خوبی بود.
به شخصه ادبیات آلمان به جز چند نویسنده مثل کافکا و .. برام خیلی جذاب نیست، اینجا هستیم که نظرات شخصیمون را درباره‌ی کتاب‌ها بدانیم پس قطعا نظر هرکس محترم است🙏🏻

[Kalliope · Rating 4 out of 5]

While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down

The City in the Sea – Poe.

This book is really a collection of essays published separately in various journals. Any book tackling the social, political and artistic situation of the world in the couple of decades before it entered its first global war, could only offer a partial view. These essays offer a series of selected aspects of this bellicose universe seen through shifting points of view.

There are considerable absences. For example, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman empires are not tackled. Instead we get a focus on Britain, France, the German Empire and the United States. There are additional chapters on Syndicalism, Anarchism, the institution of the Hague Conferences, and on a German Musician.

I have two favorite chapters. I learned a great deal from the one devoted to the US in which Tuchman shows how after the annexation of the Territory of Hawaii the country turned into something different from the days when it was founded. Fascinating was also the account of The Hague Conventions which tackled how, if they fundamentally failed, they also succeeded in starting a protocol that after some developments alleviated some aspects of brutality when humans decide to engage in war.

The least relevant of the chapters was the one dedicated to a German composer. Entertaining in itself it seemed to grant disproportionate attention to Richard Strauss, no matter how beautiful his music is.

And yet, in spite of the merged nature of this collation of essays, an overall picture emerges. From the Proud Tower we can see that it was the social structure of society, with its internal and extreme poles, that pulled a greater and greater tension and finally made the inner strings snap. But the view also offers the realization that if these social tensions were felt in parallel in the countries Tuchman has selected, their logical international relevancy was poisoned by distorting nationalisms.

What could have been a series of revolutionary and coetaneous changes in domestic social pacts, marched instead into a political war against other nations. The book starts with the idiosyncrasies and quirks of the British Lords and finishes with the assassination of Jean Jaurès-- one of the founders of the French Socialist Party-- for being a pacifist. A nationalist shot him fatally a couple of days after the war against Serbia had been declared and four days before the war became general.

Tuchman writes in a very engaging manner, but to me it was at times too engaging. I prefer a more analytical and less journalistic approach. The facts and arguments stay better in my mind.

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbara Tuchman is a master of the written word and noted for her interesting and well researched history books of which I have read several. I feel almost guilty to admit that this was not one of my favorites although it is still a four star read. I think that I allowed WWI to color my opinion even though she stated very clearly that since the war had not yet happened, she avoided the subject, wanting to show the world as it was from 1890-1914.

She divides the book into eight chapters, each self contained which address what was happening in society in the UK, US, Russia, and Germany. I certainly cannot, in a review, cover each chapter in any length, so I will only briefly speak to those that impressed and did not impress me.

*The chapter on France was simply fascinating as it concentrated almost solely on the Dreyfus trial. I have read a couple of books on that travesty and this chapter was as good as any I have ever read.

*The Patricians gives the reader an insider’s look at the power, privilege, and follies of the upper crust and the peerage of Britain. The Empire was at its height and the government was made up of this class of people. Victoria sat on the throne and Lord Salisbury was the PM. It is less than kind about some of the most powerful of the peers who had more money than brains and it was the time of what seemed limitless wealth. Very revealing.

*The chapter on the US was dedicated to the “imperialism” question as it related to the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Hawai’i. It was rather slow and contained a little too much information about Congressional actions.

The remainder of the book was good but not quite as good as other Tuchman books; therefore, four stars instead of five. I still would recommend it highly to those interested in the time leading up to WWI.

[Lawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Proud Tower: Barbara Tuchman's View of the World on the Road to War

Channel Firing
BY THOMAS HARDY
That night your great guns, unawares,
Shook all our coffins as we lay,
And broke the chancel window-squares,
We thought it was the Judgment-day

And sat upright. While drearisome
Arose the howl of wakened hounds:
The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,
The worms drew back into the mounds,

The glebe cow drooled. Till God called, “No;
It’s gunnery practice out at sea
Just as before you went below;
The world is as it used to be:

“All nations striving strong to make
Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters
They do no more for Christés sake
Than you who are helpless in such matters.

“That this is not the judgment-hour
For some of them’s a blessed thing,
For if it were they’d have to scour
Hell’s floor for so much threatening....

“Ha, ha. It will be warmer when
I blow the trumpet (if indeed
I ever do; for you are men,
And rest eternal sorely need).”

So down we lay again. “I wonder,
Will the world ever saner be,”
Said one, “than when He sent us under
In our indifferent century!”

And many a skeleton shook his head.
“Instead of preaching forty year,”
My neighbour Parson Thirdly said,
“I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.”

Again the guns disturbed the hour,
Roaring their readiness to avenge,
As far inland as Stourton Tower,
And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.

April, 1914 Satires of Circumstance

We are about to embark on a great quest. That is to explore a world at war.

Of course we speak of World War I, which would come to be known as World War I. It is not only that we seek to explore that world and war, but to attempt to understand why it happened, what brought it about.

Not only should we seek to understand what brought it about we must be aware that we seek to do all these things regarding a world that existed one hundred years ago that went to war in 1914 and did not return to a state of uneasy peace until 1918. And in attempting to understand what surprised the world as the greatest conflagration the world to that point had ever witnessed, it becomes necessary to know what the world was like.

Who were the people who lived there. How did they live, what did they do. Nor can we begin to understand the hellish waterspout that sucked so many nations into the depths of seas tinged with blood without understanding that it was not merely a world of politics or property but a world of art, music, dance, and philosophy.

These are the conflicting aspects of culture that are inconsistent with the idea of war. The attempt to put these seemingly impossible inconsistencies together can bring about a great distubance of the human spirit that a world capable of music as beautiful as "The Rites of Spring," clashing with the quivering chords rising into a crescendo of horns that might sound the trumpets of doom, based on the writings of a man who died, mad, in an asylum, but whose philosophy was adopted by a nation as its theme, acknowledging the right, the need of exerting its power over whole nations out of a sense of nationalist fervor.

Such things are of the type that enter our dreams and become our nightmares as we sense the end of one world and the beginning of another. It is as though we are walking as somnambulists in a world unknown to us. For it is unknown to us. We must be capable of forgetting, unlearning the modern world of which we consider ourselves to be a part.

This is a journey that requires a guide. Just as Aligheri required a guide into the Inferno we must have our own Virgil. It is highly likely that we will find the need of a Beatrice for the war we will eventually explore was not a paradise, but a Hell as fiery as the first book of The Human Comedy.

As we speak of Virgil we must think of a world of epic stature, that grew as great as Rome and fell just as surely as Rome. In one way we are traveling through a world as ancient to us as we would consider a symbol of its literature, the Aeneid. In his journeys from the sacked city of Troy, Aeneas met and fell in love with the Queen of the Carthaginians, Dido. And Virgil commented that a nation should be ruled by a woman to be so foreign to his people he had to document "Dux femina facti" which means the leader of the thing was a woman.

So our guide is no Virgil. Our guide is a woman, Barbara Tuchman. And as it once was, once again "Dux femina facit."

To be continued...January 30, 2014.

Our Guide

Barbara Tuchman was born Barbara Wertheimer, January 30, 1912, the daughter of prominent banker Maurice Wertheimer. Well that didn't take long. Interrupted. 2/5/2014

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neither Good Nor Bad.

The world before the War. This book walks down the long trampled path in understanding what the world was like before the First World War. We often look through rose tinted glasses at what could have been, had disaster not struck in 1914. Where would society have taken us? What would humans have achieved? Was this a time of optimism? This was a time of political stability before mass murder on an unimaginable scale, which hadn’t been seen since the Thirty Years War or even the Mongol Invasions. But was it all that? Tuchman argues that although there were good elements to the late 1890s-1910s, there were a lot of negative aspects too. Things were not quite as we perceive them and so, even though the world has changed, some of it has been good.

Tuchman certainly isn’t the last to paint this portrait, but she was early in looking into how we went to polite, inventive, high minded society to the dark and bloody negativity of the twentieth century. This isn’t a book that talks about the causes of the war, more who was entering it. As it is a short book it would be impossible and tedious to cover all countries, genders, regions and classes. However, it gives an overview of what was going on in the major countries. Tuchman’s point is that the world before the war was neither good nor bad. Like all times had its positives and bad negatives. It was more a time of missed opportunities and ties in with the consensus of ‘Sleepwalkers’, which I agree with. Europe undid itself and the places we could have taken ourselves.

Alongside a more gentlemanly side of politics, there was also ridged class structure, albeit in plain sight unlike the hidden version today, growing socialist movements and violent revolutionaries. Between 1881-1911 the anarchists assassinated Tsar Alexander II of Russia, King Umberto II of Italy, King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, King George I of Greece, President William McKinley of the USA and Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary. In addition to countless other ministers.

In looking at countries, Tuchman’s England is one of prosperity, with freedoms for its citizens, yet not quite achieving full democracy yet. The battle of the suffragettes and the lower classes on the wealthy was stirring. In looking at France, this is dominated by the Dreyfus Affair, the appalling witch hunt on the Jewish army captain, who was convicted of being a spy. American is on the edge of all and new, it has been born and was now expanding. Probably some of Tuchman’s best outlooks are provided here as she highlights the US had already began its militaristic and imperialist journey, for example with its recent victory in the Spanish-American War. The chapter on Germany is the weakest with the Wilhelmina Era brushed along. Disappointingly there is nothing on Russia, which was a major player at this time.

In conclusion, this is a short book, which does its job to some extent, but in my opinion is not the authority on the subject it tries to tackle. There is simply too much to cover here in a small volume, which leaves the reader and mostly likely author frustrated in equal portion. For me, it should have been ‘Anarchism before the War’ or ‘Britain before the War’ and extended to the length of the book provided to give a greater insight into what Tuchman is trying to say. The points, though more specialised, would provide the detail and not labour the point. If you have it read it, but do not go out of your way for this one.

[Maziar MHK · Rating 3 out of 5]

آموزنده است که می بینیم آن روحِ دیرینِ جنگجویی چقدر در همه یِ ما نزدیک به سطح نهفته است و چگونه با کوچکترین اشاره از خَفگی بیرون می آید و وقتی بِراستی بیدار شد، راه بازگشت باقی نمی گذارد
پایان رؤیا"، صفحه 222"

یِکُم
باربارا تاکمن، مؤلفی که به بانویِ داستان گویِ تاریخ شُهره ست، در کتابِ "برجِ فرازان"، داستانِ "مردمانی در جوش و خروش برای جنگ" از یک سو وَ "دولتمردانی نابکار" از دیگرسو را به روایتی دقیق و مستند می نشیند. این فلاش بَکِ او گاهاََ حتی تا نیم قرن قبل از شروعِ جنگِ جهانی اول در 1914 را هم دَر بَر می گیرد. وی زندگی و زمانه یِ مردمانِ هر دو سویِ اقیانوس اطلس-ممالک اروپایی و ایالات متحده- را، زیرِ ذره بینِ نگاهِ دقیق و روایتِ صمیمی اَش می برد تا بگوید که چه شُد و چه کردند که بزرگترین جنگِ تاریخ بشر تا آن روز آغازیدن گرفت

وی در هشت فصل، به بررسی یِ زمینه هایِ سیاسی-اجتماعیِ جنگی می نشیند که چهار سال به درازا کشید و هر چه که بود، آتش تهیه اَش در خانه ها و خیابان ها، افکار عمومی و روزنامه ها، دانشگاه ها و ستادهای ارتش، وَ در یک کلام، در دل و جانِ مردمانِ کشورهای اروپایی تدارک شُد و آخر سَرهَم از ایشان بالغ بر دَه میلیون کُشته گرفت. اگر که البته، آمارِ واقعی بیش از این ها نباشد

دوم
وی ریشه هایِ این جنگِ خانمان سوز را، در پنج فصلِ مربوط به کشورهای صاحب تاثیر یعنی آلمان، انگستان، فرانسه، آمریکا از یک طرف و سه فصلِ
:عام از طرفی دیگر، با استناد به دقیق ترین روایات شرح میدهد، بطور نمونه

انگلستان- ناپایداریِ اوضاع اجتماعی، ناخن کِشی از سوسیالیسمِ انقلاب دوست با قابلگی برایِ تولدِ حزب کارگر و آغازِ پایانِ عصرِ طبقه یِ اشرافِ مصرف کننده یِ غیرِمُولد

فرانسه- یهودی ستیزیِ بیمارگونه یِ متجلی در قضیه "سروان دریفوس"، بی توجهی و گاهاََ عنادِ عامه یِ مردم نسبت به هشدارهایِ بیشترِ نخبگانِ جامعه در بابِ احساسی گََری یِ جمعی و عقلانیت گُریزیِ ملی و مقدس پِنداریِ ارتش و ژنرال هایَش

ایالات متحده- شهوتِ بی مهارِ دریادار مِیهِن و هم فکرانش برای ساختنِ "آمریکایی جهانخوار"، ضمنِ گُذارِ محترمانه از اعلامیه استقلالِ آمریکا، از حمله به کوبا در بیخِ گوش تا اشغالِ فیلیپین در آن سرِ عالم، ، تلاش برایِ توجیه و تثبیتِ استراتژیِ تماماََ تهاجمی نیروی دریایی و دستِ آخر، سنگ اندازی در کنفرانسِ تحدید تسلیحات در لاهه یِ هلند

آلمان- مسلح شدنِ تفکرِ برتری یِ نژادی ژرمن ها با آثارِ فلاسفه ای چون نیچه، وَ همزمانی و همزبانی یِ آن با هُنرِ عاصی یِ کسانی چون اشتراوس در عرصه یِ موسیقی، تفاخر به صنایعِ بالنده ای چون "کورپ" و کارخانه هایِ تولیدِ تسلیحات جهتِ ایجادِ عطشِ عمومی برای خشونت و نهایتاََ جنگ، به شکست کِشاندنِ توافقاتِ محدودسازی یِ ساخت تسلیحات در کنفرانس لاهه

فصل هایِ عام- در میانِ فصولِ عام، همان اندازه که فصل هایِ مربوط به "آنارشیسم" و کنفرانس لاهه، خواندنی و مربوط به موضوع بودند ، فصولِ مربوط به سوسیالیست ها و "حال و هوای نرونیسم"، این چنین نبودند

سوم
مقایسه ای از تجربه یِ مطالعه یِ سه کتابِ "نشر ماهی" در باره یِ جنگ هایِ جهانی را، در قالبِ عبارتی ریاضی ارائه می دهم که ملاکِ آن دو چیز است: یِکُم، روان بودنِ ترجمه و دیگری اعتدالِ نویسنده در ورود به جزئیاتِ

صلحی که همه صلح ها را بر باد داد >> توپ های ماه اوت >> برجِ فرازان

بِعنوانِ مخاطبی عام والبته غیر متخصص در امرِ نَقادی، معتقدم که نویسنده، از فرطِ ورود به جزییات نالازم -شاید برایِ حفظ جذابیتِ اسلوبِ رواییِ-، عنانِ مدیریتِ متن از کَف داده، موردی که در کتابِ دیگرش-"توپ های ماه اوت"-، به غایت مُدبرانه از آن احتیاط ورزیده بود
جالب اینکه، وی بخاطرِ همین کتاب-توپ های ماه اوت- جایزه یِ پولیتزر را دریافت داشت که سخنرانی اَش در آن مراسم بِتاریخ شهریور1367 را میتوان از طریقِ لینک زیر تماشا کرد

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0hBG...

جالب تر اینکه، یونیک بودنِ قلمِ "تاکمن" در روایتِ بسیار دقیقِ برخی صحنه هاست ست که طی آن شخصیت هایِ جوان و ناشناخته ای معرفی می شوند که بعد ها همین شخصیت ها، آچار کلیدِ عرصه یِ سیاستِ جهانی می شوند. به عنوان نمونه، وی در این کتاب اشاراتی کوتاه به دیدارها و حوادثی دارد که طیِ آن ها اسامیِ افرادی چون چرچیل، روزولت، لنین، آلفرد نوبل و... در تعاملِ با سیاستمدارانِ مشهوری چون "بلفر"، "سالزبری"، "ویلهلم دوم" و "کلمانسو" آورده می شود و این همان "جزییات نگاریِ ی لازم و جذاب" ی است که درست در نقطه یِ مقابلِ اطاله یِ کلامِ وی در برخی مواردِ بیجا قرار دارد

آخر سخن اما
دوست دارم ریویو رو با بُریده متنی از کتاب تمام کنم که از دیدِ این بنده، هم چکیده یِ "برجِ فرزان" است و هم لایقِ چشمانِ نازنین رُفقایِ گودریدزی

هنگامی که جنگی بزرگ یا انقلابی بزرگ برپا می شود به این دلیل است که مردمی بزرگ یا نژادی بزرگ نیاز دارند راهی به بیرون بگشایند، به این دلیل است که به تنگ آمده اند، بویژه از آرامش به تنگ آمده اند. این همیشه بدان معناست که توده ای عظیم، نیازی مرموز به حرکتی عظیم در درون خویش احساس می کنند... نیازی ناگهانی به عزت و شوکت، به جنگ، به تاریخ که سبب انفجار و فوران می شود
من طالب پیکارم"، صفحه 266"

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

We 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 striking terror in all who witnessed it) that rather than putting a clarifying lens on what had come before, it instead put rose coloured glasses on the nose of the world and people could only look back in wonder at what they now knew had been a golden age. ‘Beware golden ages’ is probably as good a motto for a historian as any other I can think up and so that can be the epigraph for this review.

This is a fascinatingly interesting book discussing a fascinatingly interesting time. As she says at the start, it wouldn’t be too hard to write another book on the same period and do much the same thing as she has done here without touching on any of the subjects discussed in this particuar book. Tuchman gives us a flavour of the world in the years before the war and that helps us to get an understanding of why the war might have happened in ways that were later hidden by the rose coloured glass of what became our collective memories.

This too is a period which I thought I knew things about, but one of the things I’ve found is that the interest in history is either increased or destroyed by detail. Here the detail brings to life the period and makes sense of what I had heard bits and pieces about previously, but only in sketches no bigger than thumb-nail size, rather than the lovely detail presented here.

The Dreyfus Affair is an interesting case in point. I’ve known of this since my teens, I have known it centred around a Jewish military officer who had been falsely accused of something and that people nearly tore the country apart due to the injustice of the case. I knew Zola had written J’accuse, something I’ve always planned to read. I also know that Lenin referred to the case as proving that the revolution may not come about due to economic crisis, but due to political crisis. All this I knew, but what he had been accused of, why the case was so dramatic, what social forces were aligned on which sides and why, even the link to Germany in the case and how transfixed not only France, but the world became with the case, all that I knew virtually nothing at all.

There is also a wonderful discussion on the young Wilhelm II of Germany that is remarkably interesting, particularly given his role later in the rush towards war. But for the rest of this review I am going to look at an idea from this book review http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... and how it fits with the problems for the Socialist movement in these pre-War years.

The distinction between hope and despair is an interesting one, although as I've thought about it I’m starting to think it might not be a very useful distinction. They sound a bit like opposites, hope and despair, but are they really? What is the use of hope if it is not based on despair and can despair lead to anything other than suicide if there is no hope? The problems facing the socialists at the turn of the last century were not all that different from these questions. There is a nice line in the book where two socialists are walking down a street and one stops to put a coin in the plate of a beggar, to which his companion chides him for helping to delay the revolution. Here is the great schism in the left – the purists who saw Capitalism as an evil incapable of reform that needed to be violently removed from the face of the earth, and the reformers who saw any incremental improvement in the welfare of the working class as being justifiable on its own account. To be honest, both sides of this are equally obsessed with hope and despair – both were witnesses of the current despair, both hoped to improve the lot of those suffering, both saw the other as offering a false hope. Either a false hope in incremental improvement or a false hope in final and complete revolution. Both could look on in contempt at the other for betraying either the immediate or the long term welfare of those they sought to relieve.

It is a rare thing indeed to hear people talk of social revolution today. This is something that has been left to small groups of alienated young people at university campuses, young people who, ironically enough, spend time at university to ensure they move as far from the classes they would ‘assist’ as they possibly can. This is quite a change, as prior to the war these acrimonious debates rent the movement in twain and the effects on the movement could still be felt well into the 1970s.

And this is where I would like to say something about the benefits of history – what can we learn from history? I guess the first thing is that history is a series of competing narratives – just as this book is about the socialist movement tearing itself apart at the start of the last century it is also about the Anarchists preparing bombs to spark the revolution as it is about politicians and kings and businessmen and artists all seeking to leave their mark on the world and on history.

But what can we say about hope and despair? Is one more a benefit than the other? Are they alternate faces on the same coin? And what about today? I guess it would be easy, if a little simpleminded, to say that the reformers won and the revolutionaries brought about horrors even worse than those they sought to replace. I say ‘simpleminded’ as I often wonder if the Russian people would have had any better a time of it if the Capitalist revolution at the start of 1917 had been successful. The ‘collectivisation of farms’ would have still needed to happen, just as it needed to happen in the rest of Europe and America – just that rather than the Kulaks being blamed and punished during this process, they would have been the ones being made rich.

In equal measure there is hope and despair to be learnt from history. We can equally well show we learn and learn nothing from her pages. In whichever way you want to look at history – as a great teacher leading to the possibility of a brighter world or as Cassandra, bitterly ignored – a voice well worth listening to is Tuchman’s, another excellent book.

[Mostafa Alipour · Rating 2 out of 5]

همیشه از زیبایی ها و جهان بی نقص قبل از جنگ شنیدیم اما این توصیف ها چقدر قابل باور و اطمینان هست؟
این جهان بی نقص حقیقت داره یا چیزی جز توهم نیست؟

موضوع این کتاب واپسین سالهای عصری است که به علت پیری یا در اثر حادثه به آغوش مرگ نرفت بلکه در بحرانی نهایی که خود از حقایق بزرگ تاریخ است منفجر شد و از هم پاشید.
مقدمه نویسنده

مولانا شعری داره که وصف حال این کتاب هست.
پس نهانی‌ها به ضد پیدا شود
چونک حق را نیست ضد پنهان بود

این کتاب پاسخ قاطعانه خانم تاکمن به سوال بالاست. جهان قبل از جنگ شباهتی به گلستان پر از پردنگان خوش آواز نداره و صرفا این روزهای پر خوف و خطر جنگ بود که باعث زیباتر دیدن گذشته شد. با شروع جنگ گسترده اهمیت صلح نموار شد. قبل از اون هم صلح ارزشمند بود، اما بدلیل پیشرفت های متعدد صنعتی و علمی و امیدواری مردم به سرعت گرفتن بیش از پیش کیفیت زندگی، صلح با تمام ارزشی که داشت در باور مردم به شکل یک اصل و جز جدایی ناپذیر زندگی تبدیل شد. تا اینکه شروع جنگ بین دو کشور و با بالاگرفتن تنش بین متحدان هر طرف جنگی به بزرگی تاریخ شکل گرفت. جنگی که باور های رنگارنگ مردم رو ناگهان سیاه کرد و تا مدتها به عنوان جنگ بزرگ ازش یاد می‌شد. چون کسی فکرش رو هم نمی‌کرد چندسال بعد از این فاجعه جنگی با وسعت بیشتر و تیتراز پایانی مزین به بمب اتمی رخ بده. جهانی که حالا شاید با خوش شانسی(یا به تعبیری بدشانسی) از دو جنگ به وسعت جهان زنده خارج شده با تمام وجود معنا و ارزش صلح رو درک می‌کنه.
کوته بینی حادی هست اگر شروع جنگ اول رو یک شبه و صرفا با حمله اتریش-مجارستان به صربستان محدود کنیم. هر جایی از جهان با تصمیم و حرکتی سوق دهنده این هیجان بود و برای گسترده شدن آتشش هیزم و نفت بیشتر فراهم کرد.
تاکمن با محور قرار دادن این رویکرد به بیست و پنج سال قبل از جنگ پرداخته. تا با گشت و گذار در تاریخ متوجه بشیم قبل از شروع جنگ هم جهان به قدری که توصیف شده صلح طلب و در آرامش نبود.

روزگار مورد بحث جز برای لایه نازکی از طبقه ممتاز، عصر طلایی یا دوران شیرین به حساب نمی‌آمد و ایامی نبود که صرفا اطمینان و معصومیت و آسودگی و ثبات و ایمنی و صلح بر آن حکمفرما باشد. این کیفیات مسلما همه وجود داشت. مردم بیش از امروز به ارزشها و معیارها اطمینان داشتند و معصومتر بودند به مفهوم اینکه امیدشان به بشریت افزونتر بود، ولی نه از آرامش بیشتر بهره می‌بردند و نه آسوده‌تر می‌زیستند. خطای ما در این است که گمان می‌کنیم شک و ترس و غلیان و اعتراض و خشونت و کینه وجود نداشت. کسانی مارا به این اشتباه دچار کرده اند خود مردم آن روزگارند که وقتی از این سوی شکاف جنگ به آن سو می‌نگرند، نیمه پیشین حیاتشان را در غروب مه‌آلود و زیبای آرامش و ایمنی می‌بینند و از یاد می‌برند که هنگامی که در آن میان بودند، افق چنین زرین نمی‌نمود. نظر ما نسبت به عصر پیش از جنگ مقید به یادها و افسوسهای این مردمان است. اما قاعده‌ای که می‌توانم بر پایه پژوهشهای کافی به دست خواننده دهم این است که کسانی که در آن روزگار می‌زیسته‌اند هرچه درباره خوبی و زیبایی آن گفته باشند پس از هزارونهصد و چهارده گفته‌اند.
مقدمه نویسنده

کتاب از هشت فصل تشکیل شده و تمرکز بر روی کشور های اروپای غربی و ایالات متحد آمریکا هست. در کمال تعجب با تاثیرگذاری قابل توجه روسیه تزاری در شروع جنگ و درهم ریختگی حین و ماقبل جنگ که به انقلاب منجر شد و جنگ و شکست مفتضحانه از ژاپن بخشی بطور خاص به روسیه اختصاص پیدا نکرده.

آنارشیست ها: با روی کار اومدن جنبش های مختلف ضد سرمایه داری دسته‌ای هم اعلام وجود کردند که تنها یک خواسته و آرمان داشتند، اینکه هیچ دولت و قانونی در کار نباشه. هر سرکرده‌ای بدون دستور و بطور خودجوش برای مقابله با سواستفاده هرچه بیشتر از مردم بیگناهی که دو سوم روز رو بخاطر چند لقمه نان به بیگاری کشده شدن، دست به قتل فرد یا افرادی می‌زد که مشخص نبود کجای این بازی بی کارگردان قرار داشتند.

انگلیس: کشوری که در ظاهر محدود به بخشی از یک جزیره است اما در هر قسمتی از دنیا رد پایی ازش هست. شکوهی که در دوران الیزابت احیا شده. در این فصل ملال آور با سیاستمداران تاثیر گذار انگلیس آشنا می‌شیم که مقام های دولتی رو برای تفریح و بطور موروثی بدست می‌آوردند. خواب های ممتد در مجلس(این مورد برای ما هم کمی آشناست) و بی اهمیتی مقام نخست وزیری برای لرد سالزبری. و در نهایت اعتقاد به سنت هایی که اشراف پروری جز جدایی ناپذرش شده و اینکه حکومت انگلیس بهترین و با کیفیت ترین حکومت دنیاست.
بخش کوتاهی هم به نویسنده گمنام اون دوران اسکار وایلد اختصاص پیدا کرده.

آمریکا: کشوری که سالها تحت سلطه انگلیس گذروند و باید به نوعی پیرو سبک و سیاق سیاست های استادش باشه. ولی سنت های دیرینه جایی در این کشور نداره و مسیر شکوفایی رو در بروزرسانی خودش می‌بینه. مخصوصا تجهیز نیروی دریایی و کارآمدی بیشتر ارتش.

فرانسه: بخش فرانسه با تمرکز کامل روی بحران محاکمه دریفوس پرداخت شده. افسری که به جرم جاسوسی برای شاخص ترین رقیب یعنی آلمان محکوم شده و در تبعید و اسارت بسر می‌بره. در همین حین جامعه‌ی تقسیم شده به دو دسته‌ی نامساوی فرانسه در زدخورد با خودش دسته پنجه نرم می‌کنه. گروهی به دفاع و گروهی به محکوم کردن دریفوس. رفته رفته شواهدی قطعیت حکم صادر شده رو مورد شک قرار میده و رهبر معنوی طرفداران دریفوس کسی نیست جز امیل زولا نویسنده محبوب فرانسوی که با یادداشت من متهم می‌کنم حجمه علیه طرف مقابل رو بطور قابل توجهی افزایش میده. اما در نهایت خودش هم محاکمه و خاطی اعلام شد.
در نهایت با روشن شدن موضوع دریفوس به ارتش بازگشت اما محکومیتش باطل نشد.

لاهه: با پیشرفت های روزافزون صنعت نظامی، قدرت کشور های همگام با صنعت مرز های خودش رو به قدری گسترش داده بود که تصور دفاع در مقابل اونها خوش خیالی بود. بزرگترین عقب مانده از صنعت کشور پهناور روسیه بود. توپ های مجهز آلمان در هر دقیقه شش بار قابلت شلیک داشت و چون دود بعد از شلیک حذف شده بود ردگیری محل قرارگیری هم منتفی بود. در همین حال ارتش روسیه از توپ های دود زایی استفاده می‌کرد که در هر دقیقه تنها قابلیت یک شلیک داشت.
روسیه و تزار که به عقب بودن واقف بودند و شکی نبود اگر پیشرفت با همین سرعت ادامه داشت در جهان آینده روسیه قطعا کشوری در حاشیه و انزوا بود. پس حالا که توان رقابت همزمان نداریم کشور های تاثیر گذار رو به منع پیشرفت سلاح ها دعوت می‌کنیم.
کشور های دیگه که هیچ توافقی با این پیشنهاد نداشتند از ترس عوام و پاسداشت صلح دو مرتبه در لاهه گرد هم اومدند و نکاتی رو به تصویب رسوندند. اما پر واضحه که این دست قراردادها الزامی برای صلح نیست.
نکته جالب این بخش حضور ایران در کنفرانس لاهه هست.

آلمان: با اختلاف ملال آورترین و نامعلوم ترین بخش کتاب به آلمان اختصاص داره. اگر کتاب رو میخونید میتونید از این بخش به راحتی گذر کنید و مطمئن باشید چیزی رو از دست نخواهید داد.
صفحات ممتد و پر از جزئیات موسیقیدان هایی که معلوم نیست در این کتاب از ما چی می‌خوان؟
چکیده همه بخش این هست که آلمان در اون تاریخ در حالی که به دنبال توجه و تحسین هست اما در این مورد فقط یک استثنا هست که دنیا به یکه تازی آلمان شکی نداره، موسیقی!
قیصر آلمان مرتب دنبال بهانه‌ای برای نشون دادن قدرت و نفوذش هست در حالی که مختفر به ارتباط خانوادگی با خانواده سلطنتی بریتانیا(نوه ملکه الیزابت) هم هست منتها در سایه کامل قرار گرفته. احتمالا این موضوع در دخالت و حمله آلمان به بلژیک و در نهایت فرانسه بی تاثیر نیست.

انگلیس: دوباره به انگلیس ملال آور برمی‌گردیم و بعد از مرگ دو شخص مهم تغییرات رو برسی می‌کنیم. مرگ ملکه و نخست وزیر لرد سالزبری.

مرگ ژورس: و در نهایت آخرین بخش کتاب مربوط به یکی از تاثیرگذارترین اتفاق های اندکی قبل از جنگ می‌رسیم. جنبشی که با نام سوسیالیست ها اعلام وجود کرد و با برگزاری گردهمایی های بین‌الملل سروصدای قابل توجهی بپا کرد. جنبشی که با انشعاب از اون در جهت مخالف اروپا انقلاب مهمی رخ داد. انقلاب روسیه.

ماجرای من برای ورود به این کتاب به چندسال قبل برمی‌گرده که با خوندن مجموعه شاهکار خانواده تیبو تب تاریخ جنگ جهانی درم شلعه کشیده بود. اما به سختی خودم رو به نیمه کتاب رسوندم و در همون مرحله باقی موند. در همون روزگار هم سروکله کرونا پیدا شد و مدل زندگی همه‌ی ما دستخوش تغییر های عجیب و غریب شد.
کتاب همینطور در نظرم خاک میخورد تا اینکه به پیشنهاد من دوست عزیز تاریخ دوستم افتخار داد در این راه نیمه طی شده منو همراهی کنه تا بلاخره به پایان برسه.
با اینکه این کتاب به قدر کافی رو اعصاب جفتمون بود و خیلی فضای همخوانی شکل نگرفت ولی بازهم ازت ممنونم که پیشنهاد سرسری منو جدی گرفتی و همراه شدی.
ممنونم ازت علی عزیز. به امید همخوانی های هیجانی تر.

و در پایان نکته ای به دوستداران تاریخ و علاقه مندان به مطالعه این کتاب:
مطالعه این کتاب به هیچ وجه ساده و لذتبخش نیست. متن متمرکز و سرراستی نداره و پر از ارجاعات نامرتبط و کلافه کننده است. پس اگر هنوز این کتاب رو نخریدید دست نگه دارید. با توجه به قیمت پانصد هزار تومانی قطعا گزینه های جذاب و هیجان انگیزتری در انتظارتون هست. برخلاف دورنمای کتاب اصلا متنی عام پسند و ساده نداره و اتمامش انرژی قابل توجهی می‌طلبه. حداقل اگر این حجم نامعقول رو نداشت قابل تحمل بود. اگر پژوهش خاصی در این زمینه دارید شاید مناسب باشه ولی من توصیه نمی‌کنم.

پ‌ن: به قیمت چاپ سال نودوشش این کتاب(شصت هزار تومان) که نگاه می‌کنم حس اصحاب کهف بودن بهم دست میده!
لعنت به این بهم ریختن فارسی نویسی در گودریدز، همین.

بیست‌وشش فروردین صفرسه

[Wes Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging history of white people from late 19th century to WWI. Written by American journalist living in U.K. and published in 1966, book purports to be "A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914" -- which it ain't by a damn sight -- and works as a pretty good oil painting of the U.K., France, Germany, and the U.S. (with smatterings of Russia, Spain and Italy thrown in for spice) before they all started killing each other with gas and machine guns. Author shows us the political, social, and artistic zeitgeist(en) of what we on this side of the pond call the Gilded Age, giving them all equal emphasis (she must have done hella research) and doing a slow reveal on a time when ideas held such cultural currency that it was hard to tell the difference between what was actually political, social and artistic. What author sees in them days was boundless anticipation, a sense of progress, thousands of folks intoxicated by theory and oratory right before The Great War slapped a moratorium on that kinda Euro-centric idealism for the foreseeable future. All that social ferment yields a heady brew, but pouring it down the drain of history ain't all bad. In addition to exegeses on social progression, book also gives us the image of Western Civilization as a trans-Atlantic European boys club wrestling with humanist governance vs. nationalist self-preservation in the face of great change. The line between crusading progressive and mustachioed blowhard gets a little blurry after awhile, and it's hard to tell who the good guys are: Still needing a slide-rule to work out who the heroes were in the Dreyfus Affair, France's multi-tentacled meta-nationalist trial-of-the-century. The impression I get is that this European generation was actually pretty jazzed about the war in which they would wind up exterminating themselves because a) it had been a long time since the last war and b) they had piles of cool new war things (gas, air machines, rules [see the Hague Conventions of 1899 & 1907:]) they wanted to try out. Kaiser Wilhelm II just knew this war was gonna be awesome.

Clever trick author pulls by saving her socialism section for the end, unwinding the tale of irascibly brilliant cadre men and women dedicating their significant mental resources to the liberation of the international worker; taking Marx's admonishment against nationhood to heart, French, German, British and American intellectuals brainstorm for decades about the best way to improve the plight of the bottom strata of society. Their rhetoric gets a little heavy, even silly, at times, but when WWI cuts it short, it's a drag. When Kaiser Wilhelm declares war, barking, "I know no groups, only Germans" (the inverse of Marx's maxim "the worker knows no fatherland") we get ready to watch the Socialists march off to kill each other back on earth. Author gives us the full brunt of nationalism's tragic victory over humanism. We also get ready for serious men in ridiculous helmets, blood-muddy trenches, evil-looking gas masks, the tropes of a new century's killing fields; an ugly, absurd death for a shining, absurd era. Author knows how remote this period will seem to her readers in the 60s -- and it's from fucking Mars in 2008, by the way -- so she writes it all down with the kind of loving and amused distance we reserve at Christmas for kids who don't know about Santa Claus yet. Author loves this time, but I think she's glad she knows the truth.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 Ottoman Empire and the frustrated desires of the long-suppressed peoples on the "wrong" side of the Adriatic?

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914 does not even bother to mention the First and Second Balkan Wars that took place in 1912-13 and radically altered the map of Europe. She does not mention why Austria wanted to punish Serbia, even though the assassinated Archduke Ferdinand was as fiercely unpopular in Vienna as he was in Belgrade and Sarajevo. And what about Russia? Why was Nicholas II so eager to go to bat for Serbia?

Still and all, The Proud Tower is not only an essential book, but verges on being a great one. I can continue to cavil about what Tuchman does not cover, but on the subjects she does cover, she is fair-to-middling great. Her chapters on the Dreyfus affair in France, the anarchists of Europe, on the rise and fall of the patrician politicians of England, and the strangeness of Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany are classics.

The title of the book comes from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe called "The City in the Sea":

While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

This is the second time I've read The Proud Tower, which remains the classical study of the long, slow march to the War To End All Wars.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I simply love Tuchman’s writing style, which tells stories around various figures and themes relevant to understanding the origins of the First World War. Except in her introduction and final scene on the verge of mobilization of armies she avoids explicit reference to the war because of the power of the lens of hindsight to distort the accuracy of historical truth. She leaves it to other accounts, including her earlier book, “The Guns of August”, to elucidate the political evolution leading to the war, the “Dual and Triple Alliances, Moroccan crises and Balkan imbroglios.” Such assessment by itself she believes “is misleading because it allows us to rest on the easy illusion that it is ‘they,’ the naughty statesmen, who are responsible for war while ‘we,’ the innocent people, are merely led”. In her view, “The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the Great War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever.”

Her method instead is to “concentrate on society rather than the state”, and her agenda is eloquently stated in these two sentences:
The Great War of 1914-18 lies like a band of scorched earth dividing that time from ours. In wiping out so many lives which would have been operative on the years that followed, in destroying beliefs, changing ideas, and leaving incurable wounds of disillusion, it created a physical as well as psychological gulf between two epochs. This book is an attempt to discover the quality of the world from which the great World came.

With such a goal, it is no wonder that I sometimes found myself missing a coherent focus. My lazy self wanted someone wise to tell me what to think and present lessons learned from history. Instead I came to appreciate how she breathes life into so many figures and lets their stories paint the big picture and like a novelist, showing not telling what the narrative themes. The book’s origin derives from a set of essays published in magazines and journals. The chapters of her stew include: 1) the status of the aristocracy in England, 2) the evolution of the anarchist movement, 3) America’s political struggles over its transition toward imperialism, 4) the Dreyfus Affair in France, 5) the attempt of the Hague peace conferences to establish as international court, 6) the ferment of culture and the arts in Germany, 7) the growth in power by the Liberal and Labor Parties in England, 8) the evolution of socialism in France, England, and Germany. A little bit more of a sketch of these contents is derived from a 2009 Washington Post review by Jonathan Yardley is tucked away here:
In "The Patricians," she writes about an England in which "the Age of Privilege, though assailed at many points and already cracking at some, still seemed, in the closing years of the Nineteenth Century and of Victoria's reign, a permanent condition." "The Idea and the Deed" is about the Anarchists, who "were able to draw blueprints of a state of universal harmony only by ignoring the evidence of human behavior and the testimony of history." "End of a Dream" is about the rise of the U.S. Navy and America's turn toward imperialism. In "Give Me Combat!" she writes about the Dreyfus Affair, in which a French officer was convicted of turning over secrets to Germany, a wildly controversial case that reeked of anti-Semitism.

In "The Steady Drummer," her subject is the peace conferences of 1899 and 1907 at the Hague, in which little more than rhetorical progress was made toward "the goal of a new international order in which nations would be willing to give up their freedom to fight in exchange for the security of law." "Neroism Is in the Air" is about prewar German culture, with particular emphasis on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and the music of Richard Strauss. In "Transfer of Power," she writes about the "transfer of power" in England, "not a mere political transfer from the in-party to the outs but one more profound, to a new class." And, finally, in "The Death of Jaurès," her focus is on the birth of socialism and, with the murder of Jean Jaurès, its great French leader, the death of his conviction "that man was good, that society could be made good and the struggle to make it so was to be fought daily, by available means and within present realities."

I learned to sit back and enjoy the ride and luxuriate in lingering whenever she did. In that way, as a portrait of an age, it stands up well in comparison with her magnanimous, and also wandering, book on the 14th century, "The Distant Mirror". Tension over the impending cataclysm imbues a special poignancy to her narratives, somewhat like life on the Titanic before the iceberg is struck. I get a sense of a ballroom dance with intricate formations of alternating partners. With variations among countries, we see the swirl of nationalism vs. internationalism, socialism vs. capitalism, labor vs. management, monarchy vs. democracy, working class vs. aristocracy, church vs. state, cultural modernism vs. traditional values.

My eyes glazed over the most in the first chapter on the persistence of the class structure of Britain in the period. As Tuchman herself lived a privileged life of wealth, she certainly had an eye for the details of their upper classes, down to details of their jewelry and fancy dresses. She outdid herself in building outrage in me and likely most readers over the excesses in the lifestyles of the patricians and their sense of entitlement as natural rulers. Still, I did come to appreciate some of their paradoxes, such as many taking up liberal causes such as constraints on child labor and health care for the poor and their acceptance by the majority of the lower classes. I got pleasure from her putting up an iconic portrait by Sargent of Lord Ribblesdale, who was a Liberal Whip in the House of Lords a trustee of the National Gallery. This personification of the English gentleman entitled “The Ancestor” garners this wonderful response from Tuchman:

Standing at full length in the portrait, dressed as Master of the Queen’s Buckhound in long riding coat, top hat, glistening boots and holding a coiled hunting whip, Sargent’s Ribblesdale stared out upon the world in an attitude of such natural arrogance, elegance and self-confidence as no man of a later day would ever achieve. …Like most of his kind he had a sense of easy communion with the land-based working class who served the sports and estates of the gentry.


Lord Ribblesdale, the epitome of English gentry--painting by Sargent

I also loved it when she waxed poetic over the aristocracy’s love of horses:
The English gentleman is unthinkable without his horse. …He provided locomotion, occupation and conversation; inspired love, bravery, poetry and physical prowess. He was the essential element in racing, the sport of kings, as in cavalry, the elite of war. …The fox-hunting man never had enough of the thrills, the danger, and the beauty of the hunt; of the wail of the huntsman’s horn, the excited yelping of the hounds, the streaming rush of red-coated riders and black-clad ladies on sidesaddles, the flying leaps over banks, fences, stone walls and ditches, even crashes, broken bones and the cold aching ride home in winter. If it was bliss in that time to be alive and of the leisured class, to hunt was rapture.

The reason that I liked the section on U.S. imperialism trends is because it countered my conception of what seemed so inevitable from reading about Teddy Roosevelt (in McCullough’s “Mornings on Horseback”). It was enlightening to see how the beginnings of the advance of the U.S. from an isolationist nation into a world power in this period had some powerful naysayers. That a man from my state of Maine, Thomas Reed, as a legislative gatekeeper as Speaker of the House, had an important role in the debate against annexation of Hawaii and in putting brakes on the progressive steps leading to acquisition of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines was personally gratifying to me. The fount of ideology supporting arguments in favor territorial acquisition at almost any cost is Alfred Mahan, commander of the Naval War College and author of “The Influence of Sea Power on History”.


Thomas Reed and Alfred Mahan

The section dragged a bit for me over Reed’s battle to get rid of the power of the minority party to block any legislation obnoxious to it by refusing a quorum by remaining silent when a roll call vote was held. Where she excels is in aptly capturing the personality of these figures and making you imagine the connection to their politics. Here are some choice examples on Reed:
His hair thinned until he was almost bald, his figure bellied out until, as he walked down the streets of Portland, he resembled “a human frigate among shallops.” Silent, impassive, with an inward-turned eye, noticing no one, he moved along with the ponderous, gently swaying gait of an elephant. “How narrow he makes the street look!” a passer-by once exclaimed.
…
Never landed in a large sense, nor wealthy, these forbears and their neighbors had striven over the generations to maintain a settlement on the rock-ribbed soil, to survive Indian attack and isolation and snowbound winters. The habit of struggle against odds was bred into Thomas Reed’s blood.
…
He never used an extra word, never stumbled in his syntax, was never at a loss, never forced to retreat or modify a position. He was instant in rejoinder, terse, forcible, lucid. He could state a case unanswerably, illuminate an issue, destroy an argument or expose a fallacy in fewer words than anyone else. His language was vivid and picturesque. “Hardly time to ripen a strawberry,” he said to describe a lapse of two months. …His epigrams were famous. “All the wisdom in the world consists in shouting with the majority” was one. “A statesman is a politician who is dead” was another. …Once when mistaken for Cleveland in an ill-lit room, Reed said, “Mercy! Don’t tell Grover. He is too proud of his good looks already.”

Tuchman’s profile of Mahan captures a bit of his narrow morality in personal life as a contrast with the questionable moral foundations of his belief in the Manifest Destiny for the U.S. to become a global power:
He had little sense of humor, a high moral tone and shared the respectable man’s horror of Zola’s novels, which he forbade his daughters to read. So precise were his scruples that when living on naval property at the War College he would not allow his children to use the government pencils. …
External expression of his personality was limited: his life was inner. He was like a steam kettle in which the boiling goes on within an enclosed space and the steam comes out through a single spout.

Reed effectively identified militarism and colonial acquisitions as counter to the principles of the nation’s founders. Yet Mahan and Senator Lodges’ arguments over the strategic benefits of Hawaii for naval operations in the Pacific combined with economic payoffs won the day. Their hunger for bases in Cuba and the Philippines was fulfilled when the sinking of the ship “Maine” in Havana provided the excuse for the Spanish-American War and easy victory. I was surprised how divisive the fight over whether to keep the Philippines was. It generated strange bedfellows in opposition, as labor leader Gompers was joined by industrialist Carnegie in the protests. President McKinley went with keeping the island, with a token payment of $20 million to ease the perfidy. We know now that the rebels who fought the Spanish soon turned against American governance and that a long jungle war wreaked devastation on the insurgents and disheartened the U.S. military forces in a way that presaged the Vietnam War. I appreciated Reed’s comments after losing the struggle in Congress to prevent the takeover:
“We have bought ten million Malays at $2.00 a head unpicked,” remarked Reed acidly, and in the most prescient comment made by anyone at the time, he added, “and nobody knows what it will cost to pick them.”

Of other parts of the book, I was most fascinated and moved by Tuchman’s coverage of the dream of the socialists for an international brotherhood of workers which would be able to abolish war through the power of a general strike. Having recently read about the war resistance movements in Britain in Hochschild’s book, “To End All Wars”, I was primed to feel sad all over again at how nationalism trumped any broader humanitarian movement or the uncompleted attempts of the Hague conferences to institute negotiated settlement of international disputes. The motivations and efforts of socialists like Keir Hardie in Britain and Jean Jaurès in France to prevent the war were heroic but futile, in the latter case ended by his murder in August, 1914. The epoch of peace in Europe was revealed by this book to be full of conflicts in ideas, sporadic but pervasive violence surrounding labor strikes and fights for suffrage, small wars confined to distant colonies or the Balkans, and a build-up of armaments. The gulf between relative peace to world war now became a narrow line easily stepped across. In England, Hardie and only a few others protested the Parliament’s steps toward war after Germany and France began mobilization of their armies. What a powerful ending to the book Tuchman makes:

Elsewhere there was no dissent, no strike, no protest, no hesitation to shoulder a rifle against fellow workers of another land. When the call came, the worker, whom Marx declared to have no fatherland, identified himself with country, not class. He turned out to be a member of the national family like anyone else. The force of his antagonism which was supposed to topple capitalism, found a better target in the foreigner. The working class went to war willingly, even eagerly, like the middle class, like the upper class, like the species.


Jean Jaures and Barbara Tuchman

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Proud Tower by Barbara W. Tuchman

Joy, Hope, Suspicion - above all, astonishment - were the world's prevailing emotions when it learned on August 29, 1898, that the young Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, had issued a call to the nations to join in a conference for the limitation of armaments. all the capitals were taken by surprise. That the call should come from the mighty and ever expanding power whom the other nations feared and who was still regarded, despite its two hundreds years of European veneer, as semi-barbaric, was cause for dazed wonderment liberally laced with distrust.

This book is a departure from Tuchman's more popular histories. The Proud Tower was written four years after her Pulitzer winner ‘Guns of August’. This volume of eight loosely connected chapters covers the changing world in the twenty five years leading up to the Great War. The focus is on the larger nations: England, Germany, France and to a lesser extent Russia and the United States. This read has more of a scholarly feel and provides a little less background than her more well known histories. The writing as expected is still quite good but there were some historical events that I was unfamiliar with. I did resort to looking up a number of the historical figures using online resources to assist. What follows is a brief synopsis of the eight chapters.

Chapter 1 covers the Patricians: England from 1895-1902. There is a heavy focus on the enigmatic Lord Salisbury, Robert Cecil who served as prime minister three different times and was a favorite of Queen Victoria. He represented the old Victorian vanguard and was aptly dubbed a patrician or what we would call an imperialist today. He served as Prime Minister through the Boer Wars, a hard fought campaign and harbinger of the difficult times that lie ahead for Britain. Lord Salisbury died a year later in 1903 and the Victorian era was coming to a close. This was one of my favorite chapters.

The average member of the ruling class, undisturbed by Lord Salisbury’s too-thoughtful, too-prescient mind, did not worry deeply about the future; the present was so delightful. The Age of Privilege, though assailed at many points and already cracking at some, still seemed, in the closing years of the Nineteenth Century and of Victoria’s reign, a permanent condition. To the privileged, life appeared secure and comfortable and peace brooded over the land

Chapter 2 covers the Anarchists from 1890-1914. From France to the United States to Spain to Italy to Russia, there were a large number of assassinations and most of these crimes were committed by anarchists. I like the premise of the chapter, it was quite thin however. An entire book could be written here.

Chapter 3 covers the United States from 1890-1902 and the death of Isolationism. Most of this chapter is focused on Thomas B. Reed the congressman from Maine and Speaker of the House. Reed was a greatly respected political figure, anti-war proponent, civil rights advocate and an isolationist. He opposed the Spanish American war, the annexation of Hawaii and the occupation of the Philippines and he later resigned from Congress in protest. The era of American expansionism was well under way.

Military operations in the Philippines swelled in size and savagery. Against the stubborn guerrilla warfare of the Filipinos, the U.S. Army poured in regiments, brigades, divisions, until as many as 75,000 were engaged in the islands at one time. Filipinos burned, ambushed, raided, mutilated; on occasion they buried prisoners alive. Americans retaliated with atrocities of their own, burning down a whole village and killing every inhabitant if an American soldier was found with his throat cut, applying the “water cure” and other tortures to obtain information… A raiding party which missed Aguinaldo but captured his young son made headlines. Reed, coming into his office that morning, said in mock surprise to his law partner, “What, are you working today? I should think you would be celebrating. I see by the papers that the American Army has captured the infant son of Aguinaldo and at last accounts was in hot pursuit of the mother.”

Chapter 4 covers France from 1894-1899 focusing heavily on the Dreyfus Affair. Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army and was falsely accused and convicted of passing secrets to the Germans. There was strong anti-Jewish sentiment in France (and across Europe). Emile Zola wrote his famous article J’Accuse and Dreyfus was given a second trial and Zola acted as an attorney for him after information pointed to a different officer as the one sending secrets to Germany. Dreyfus was convicted at the second trial and Zola fled to England after a libel conviction. Dreyfus was later pardoned by the French president. This chapter focuses on this powderkeg of anti-semitic feelings, strong socialist and anti-socialist sentiments in France.

Chapter 5 covers the two Peace Conferences at the Hague in 1899 and 1907 and the drumbeat of militarism. The principal nations knew there were problems long before WW1. There were many expansionist and territorial conflicts between the powers in the Pacific and especially in Africa. There was also the Naval arms race between Britain and Germany that contributed to the militarism. Russia would have been more of a factor in the Baltic but their astonishing defeat at the hands of the Japanese in the East left the government and military reeling.

Chapter 6 “Neroism is in the Air” covers the decadence of Europe, largely focusing on Germany, in the period of 1890-1914. There is heavy focus here on the art in Europe, especially music, and the works of many such as Strauss that veered heavily away from Victorian norms. Germany was expanding more rapidly than any other nation in Europe and Kaiser Wilhelm was promulgating his idea of Germany as the great nation and there was a lust for a new world order.

Strauss completed the score of Elektra in September, 1908 … For the legendary drama set in 1500 B.C. he wanted everything to be exact and realistic insisting on real sheep and bulls for Clytemnestra’s sacrifice. “Strauss, are you mad?” howled the stage director in terror. “Imagine the cost! And the danger! What will they do when your violent music begins?”

Chapter 7 covers the transfer of power in England from 1902-1911 in the age of the people and the rise of David Lloyd George.

Chapter 8, the final chapter, covers socialism and the assassination of Juares in the immediate days preceding WW1. This chapter focuses heavily on France and the attempts of many socialists to avoid war with Germany and the frustration of many conservative nationalists who were deeply distrustful of the Germans. They correctly understood the Kaiser’s ambition to invade France and were concerned about repeating the disastrous Franco Prussian War some forty years earlier. Jean Juares was an influential French socialist and widely respected journalist and leader with strong ties to other socialists in Europe. He was gunned down by Raoul Villain a French nationalist on July 31st. Even if Juares had not been assassinated, there was little hope left to avoid war between Germany and France by that point.

Four stars. This read is probably of more interest to those who really like histories or exploring widely ranging historical topics, whereas Tuchman’s other works like the Zimmerman Telegram and The Guns of August are more generally appealing and more tightly constructed narratives.

[Mostafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

از خواندن این کتاب بسیار لذت بردم، آموختم ، متاثر و غمگین شدم ، به برخی ها به مثابه انسان های بزرگ و تاریخی افتخار کردم و بنا به قاعده ای که می گوید از ظلم تنفر داشته باش و نه از ظالم ، از کوته فکری ها و خودبینی ها و مبانی بی پایه ناسیونالیسم بیزار و دردمند شدم

این کتاب در حوزه تاریخ سیاسی به نحو شایسته و بایسته ای ، گزارش سال های 1880 تا 1914 که سال وقوع جنگ جهانی اول هست رو به طور مفصل و موشکافانه مطرح و دلایل وقوع جنگ رو عموما در بین مردم ، احزاب، گروه ها و نه فقط سران سیاسی و بلند پایه کشورها ، مورد بررسی قرار داده است

[Jan-Maat]

I remember this as an accessible account of the subject, with nice vignettes like Lord Salisbury being scooted around his garden in his bath chair.

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is understandable that many do not ‘get’ Tuchman’s The Proud Tower. It is a collection of topics, almost disparate stand-alone essays, which seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. As you finish each chapter and begin the next, you are almost dumped into another country, subject, group of people—the world at large—wondering what this has to do with what you were just reading. But Tuchman has a very specific purpose which she explains in the Afterword, for once worth reading first. Here is a brief selection from it:

‘The proud tower built up through the great age of European civilization was an edifice of grandeur and passion, of riches and beauty and dark cellars. Its inhabitants lived, as compared to a later time, with more self-reliance, more confidence, more hope; greater magnificence, extravagance and elegance; more careless ease, more gaiety, more pleasure in each other’s company and conversation, more injustice and hypocrisy, more misery and want, more sentiment including false sentiment, less sufferance of mediocrity, more dignity in work, more delight in nature, more zest. The Old World had much that has since been lost, whatever may have been gained.’

Even if you only read a few of the fascinating topics* in this excellent book, you will learn more than from any other history book on this era.

*The Patricians, England, 1895-1902;
The Idea and the Deed, Anarchists, 1890-1914;
The End of a Dream, America, 1890-1902;
‘Give me Combat!’, France, 1894-9;
The Steady Drummer, The Hague: 1899 and 1907 +++

There is MUCH she does NOT cover. This is a book about the peoples living in the countries of the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary with some mention of Russia, then considered the ‘Western powers’. Anyone who wants to critique this (or any) book on what is not there, should not read that book. Take each book for what IS there. No person (or book) can be all things to all people and we should not expect them to be. It is grossly unfair to expect a book, especially one written years ago, to come up to our standards. Instead, we should ask ourselves if we could meet their standards? I dare say we could not.

As the title says, this is a portrait. A portrait is a single two dimensional view of a subject. It shows some, but still leaves out much.

This is my second complete reading. I have also reread several of the better chapters 3 and 4 times. MOST highly recommended!


January 19, 2019: Over the Christmas holidays we went as a family to see Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old and it brought back memories of our trip¹ to the WWI battlefield of Verdun when we lived in Europe. So we decided that this and Ms. Tuckman's other book, The Guns of August would be our next listens...

¹My singular visit and my husband's several trips there.

May 26, 2008: Folio Society sold this as part of a combined set with The Guns of August. Read (back in 2001) following GoA but should have read this first.

The Proud Tower gives the background for the social, political, artistic, military movements/events which occurred in a spiritually stagnant Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s precipitating the climate necessary for the bloodbath of WWI. Excellent!

Although not considered an 'historian' in the strict sense of the word, Barbara Tuchman is accessible, i.e., she writes readable histories for the average person.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barbara Tuchman is a widely respected historian, and I have always assumed I'd get around to reading all her books some day (I read two of her books in my pre- Goodreads.com days). I had not previously read The Proud Tower probably because the era prior to World War I is of limited interest to me. Things changed recently when Ken Follett came out with his book, Fall of Giants, and a book group I belong to decided to read, Edith Wharton's book The Age of Innocence. These are both fictional stories set in the late 19th and/or early 20th centuries. What better way to prepare myself for those books than to read Tuchman's nonfiction account of the era.

World War I was so horrible that it causes many to look back on the pre-war era as being a Golden Age. The book's Foreword indicates that, "It did not seem so golden ... in the midst of it." Tuchman offers the following rule based on her research:

"all statements of how lovely it was in that era made by persons contemporary with it will be found to have been made after 1914."

The Proud Tower is divided into chapters of varied subjects and I've decided to give my impressions of the book by making the following short comments about each chapter

Chapter 1 "The Patricians (England: 1895-1902)" is about British aristocracy of the era and focuses primarily on Prime Ministers, Salisbury and Balfour. I found this to be a boring chapter which is an indication of my interest in reading descriptions of British politians. They all seemed to convey a haughty confidence that God is an Englishman, and thus it is God's will that the British take on the white man's burden of maintaining a world wide empire.

Chapter 2 "The Idea and the Deed (Anarchists: 1890-1914)" is about the terrorist of that era. Anarchists had the theory that organized government was the cause of human suffering. It follows from this belief that if sufficient chaos could be created by acts of violence to cause governments to collapse, people would be then free to live in an egalitarian utopian society. The terror caused to this end by Anarchists of this era are summarized in the following quotation from the book:

"...six heads of state were assassinated for its sake in the twenty years before 1914. They were President Carnot of France in 1894, Premier Canovas of Spain in 1897, Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 1898, King Humbert of Italy in 1900, President McKinley of the United States in 1901, and another Premier of Spain, Canalejas, in 1912."

Chapter 3 "End of a Dream (United States: 1890-1902)" is the story how USA caught the colonial fever and ventured into their own war of aggression in the Spanish-American War. Americans then emulated the European colonial powers by holding on to The Philippines.

Chapter 4 "Give Me Combat" is an account of France 1894-1899. France's story is told largely by telling how the nation was tied up in knots from 1897 to 1899 because of the Dreyfus Affair. Anyone in France during those years who heard the term, "the affair," would have known what it meant. The Dreyfus Affair became a proxy battle for the division between the conservative and liberals of the time.

”The Revisionists, who fought for retrial, saw France as the fount of liberty, the country of light, the teacher of reason, the codifier of law, and to them the knowledge that she could have perpetrated a wrong and connived at a miscarriage of justice was insufferable. They fought for Justice. Those on the other side claimed to fight in the name of ‘Patrie’ for the preservation of the Army as the shield and protector of the nation and of the Church as the guide and instructor of its soul.”

Chapter 5 "The Steady Drummer" focuses on the peace conferences held at The Hague in 1899 and 1907. The purpose of the conferences was disarmament but the best they could do was agree to very limited rules of war. The participants at the time did not know, unlike the readers of this book, that World War I was coming. In hindsight it's pretty obvious that the the conferences didn't have a chance. There are some incredible quotes from this era, one of which is listed below:

"Lord Lansdowne, opposing the Old Age Pensions Bill in the House of Lords, said it would cost as much as a great war and the expense of the South African War was a better investment. ‘A war, terrible as are its consequences, has at any rate the effect of raising the moral fibre of the country …’ “

Chapter 6 titled "Neroism is in the Air" is about Germany 1890-1914 and uses Richard Strauss and his music as a primary focus while also covering others such as Kaiser Wilhem and Friedrich Nietzsche. One item that caught my attention is how Tuchman described "Also sprach Zarathustra," Op. 30 (Eng. Thus Spoke Zarathustra). It's a tone poem composed by Richard Strauss in 1896 inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise of the same name. What I found interesting is that Tuchman was writing in the mid 1960s and thus couldn't do what any writer after 1968 would have done and refer to it as the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey." So how does one describe it when you can't refer to the movie?

"Trumpets sounded the opening, swelling into an immense orchestral paean by the whole ensemble which seemed to depict less the sunrise stated in the program notes than the creation of the world. Its magnificence was breathtaking."

Chapter 7 titled "Transfer of Power (England: 1902-1911)" tells the story of the beginnings of the Labor Party and the ascendance of the Liberal Party in England. This chapter describes the long tortured path toward passage of the Parliament Bill that limited the veto power of the House of Lords. At the time of its passage some considered it akin to near revolution, but in the end it hardly made a ripple of change.

Chapter 8, "The Death of Jaures (The Socialists: 1890-1914)" is about the Socialist and Labor movments of the time. Jean Jaurès who's name is in the chapter title was a French Socialist leader. He was an antimilitarist and was assassinated at the outbreak of World War I by a French nationalist. His death is symbolic of how the socialist cause was swallowed up the World War I. Some Socialists had theorized prior to WWI that future wars would be prevented because of organized labor's international spirit of brotherhood of workers. We all know how wrong that theory turned out to be. The following quotation from the book caught my eye as one of the more astounding comments.

"While campaigning for McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt said in a private conversation, 'The sentiment now animating a large proportion of our people can only be suppressed as the Commune was suppressed, by taking ten or a dozen of their leaders out, standing them against a wall and shooting them dead. I believe it will come to that. These leaders are plotting a social revolution and the subversion of the American Republic.' "

TR was referring to the Socialist Party of America and their presidential candidate, Eugene Debs.

The following link is to an excerpt from this book about the tactics of suffragettes in Britton.
3/12/20: http://eepurl.com/gVWt6T
______________
The following didn't come from this book. However, it's interesting information that I recently read about happenings in this era which I feel compelled to share with those who read my reviews:
Aspirin came into being in the late 1890s when Bayer in Germany began distributing it in powder form. One patient who should not have been taking aspirin was young Alexei Nicholaevich Romanov of Russia, who had hemophilia. Aspirin would make the bleeding in this disorder worse, but the imperial doctors likely gave the boy this new wonder drug without knowing. Alexei, son of the last czar, probably improved because the mystic Grigori Rasputin told the boy's mother to stop modern treatments and instead rely on spiritual healing. Rasputin's influence on the Romanov family may have contributed to the uprising against them, making aspirin a possible player in their murder and in the end of czarist Russia.

[B. P. Rinehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jerusalem (And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time) sung by Paul Robeson


Idealism vs Nationalism

This book follows on from my reading of Wedgewood's The Thirty Years War for me in my personal reading syllabus (I'll link to that below), and we are looking at Europe at the 25 years before WWI. This book followed-up Tuchman's breakthrough bestseller The Guns of August and was meant to capitalize on its success. It uses some previously published articles and some articles written for this book to show what was going on for some of the key players before the way. I want to look into what is written in this book and what was not included; I had by-chance the fortune of reading Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois and gaining an on-the-ground insight by someone who lived through these times and lived for a while in one of the principal countries (I'll return to Du Bois later).

The United Kingdom would have two big social transitions before the War came. The death of Queen Victoria whose name labeled the the 19th century status quo, who's grandchildren ruled most of Europe, and whose empire ruled most of the Earth was followed on by the disastrous Pyrrhic victory of the Second Boer War which exposed the growing weakness of the British military and its government. The governing aristocracy which made up the Conservatives and Liberals was facing a new order of young ambitious Professional middle-class and working class. The two parties had spent so much time taking their world for granted that they felt no real threat to themselves besides Irish Home Rule and Germany. The rise to power of imperial-minded countries like the United States after its war with Spain and Japan after its way with Russia, not to mention the threat Imperial Germany saw the UK do the unthinkable and normalize diplomatic relations with France which it had not had since the Norman Invasion of England in 1066. This would see Britain and France settle all their disputes over their colonies and make plans to try to gobble-up more as empires do. This was followed-up with the General Election of 1906 which saw the British Labour Party enter the House of Commons and the British Liberals get the biggest majority ever--and subsequently collapse and see Labour become the party of the British left. Meanwhile, the British nobles who controlled the Conservative party would see their powers curtailed and be replace by the same sort of capitalist oligarchs that control the United States.

The big highlight of this book for me was what was going on in France at this time. This was the France that got consumed by The Dreyfus Affair. Especially given why I am reading this book and the next history book in my little history syllabus, this chapter was very important for me to read. A Jewish army captain named Alfred Dreyfus is accused of espionage by the French Army general command based on being Jewish and "unlikeable." at first no one questions anything, but slowly the truth starts tricking out and as the the French military and government conspire to cover their tracks, they break every moral and ethical rule in the book. This is coming to an atmosphere in which nationalism, anti-German sentiment, and most-especially antisemitism are mixing toxically in France. Antisemitism which had been gradually dying down through the 19th Century violently re-awoken. Everyone in French society took a side and it re-ordered the map of the French Third Republic for the remiander of its existence. It also gave us Émile Zola's J'accuse!, which I read years ago, and which exposed in public almost the whole conspiracy. Also Chekhov was in Paris and was at Zola's trial at this time. I won't go into the whole thing here, but even though Dreyfus did eventually regain his freedom and clear his name, the rapid French nationalism would remain until at least 1962 *hint* *hint*.

National Anthem of Imperial Russia

Meanwhile, Czar Nicholas II decides to call a peace conference at The Hague. Not because he cares for peace, but to covertly try to stall Europe and the US while he attempts to clandestinely modernize his military--both objectives fail. Instead of preventing war, The Hague Conference of 1899 (and its follow-up in 1907) simply attempt to regulate the conduct of it. We all see the state of the Peace Movement and the founding of the Nobel Peace Prize. This chapter really crystallizes just how militantly hawkish Teddy Rosevelt and Kaiser Wilhem II (this dude!) were. Throughout this book, America wanted to grab as many colonies as possible, while Germany was doing everything it could to provoke a war somewhere. And the steady drummer marched on...

National Anthem of Imperial Germany -- Tell me if this song sounds familiar to my folks from the United Kingdom.

For me, the weakest chapter of this book is surprisingly the one that focuses on the events in Germany at this time. Instead of focusing on the politics it is a random biography of Richard Strauss aka the guy who wrote this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV4Is... While it was a well-written write-up, I feel Tuchman is much better writing about politics/society/war than classical music in central Europe. It's a decent write-up, but you can get into trouble here trying to write on culture or music you like in an "objective" voice. We lean about the domestic scandals that were swirling around the Kaiser's court (mostly surrounding homosexuality) which provoked a reactionary backlash. This was an interesting chapter, I just don't know if it was fully necessary.

The Internationale sung by Billy Bragg

This book also does a very thorough look at the rise and fall of the Anarchist and Socialist in the lead-up to the Great War. These chapters as interesting as the one on how the principle of pure "laissez-faire" capitalism undid the British Liberal Party (the last European Liberal party to have power). I got to let Tuchman speak here:

...the differences between the worker and the intellectual was ineradicable in socialism. Organized Socialism bore the name Workingmen's Association but in fact it was never any such thing. It was a movement not of, but on behalf of, the working class, and the distinctions remained basic. Although it spoke for the worker and made his wants articulate, goals and doctrine were set, and thought, energy and leadership largely supplied by, intellectuals. The working class was both client and...necessary instrument of the Overthrow of capitalism. As such it appeared as Hero; it was sentimentalized. . .[The working class] was neither all one thing nor the other;. . .The working class was no more of a piece than any other class. Socialist doctrine, however, required it to be an entity with a working-class mind, working-class voice, working-class will, working-class purpose. In fact, these were not easily ascertainable. The Socialist idealized them and to be idealized is to be overestimated.

This last chapter focuses on the Socialist movement in the West, in-particular the Second International and the French socialist Jean Jaurès. We see how the German and British governments attempt to co-opt the Socilaist in their country succeeds--especially in Germany which had established Europe's first Welfare State under Bismark's premiership. German socialism becomes increasingly nationalistic while French socialism tries to moderate between Marxism and nationalism. Jaurès tries his best to be the international peace-maker of socialism, but its undercut by those two -isms: nationalism and racism. He was ever the idealist, but as Clemenceau said, it was Jaurès' fate "to preach the brotherhood of nations with such unswerving faith...that he was not daunted by the brutal reality of facts." As this chapter is titled "The Death of Jaurès" things don't get better. As the meetings of the Second International accomplish little (other than confirming the First International's banning of the anarchist) when WWI starts Jaurès is assassinated by a French nationalist after the last meeting of the Second International and the next day French soldiers are headed to the front

This book was a what I've come to expect from Tuchman language-wise. It was interesting to read this after reading Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil which also recount these years. The difference is that Du Bois was a graduate student in Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany and was a visitor to Paris during The Dreyfus Affair and to England during the premiership of Lord Sailsbury so he has a lot offer which we don't get here. His feelings on the cause of WWI?:

The red day dawned when the tinder was lighted in the Balkans and Austro-Hungary seized a bit which brought her a step nearer to the world's highway; she seized one bit and poised herself for another. Then came that curious chorus of challenges, those leaping suspicions, raking all causes for distrust and rivalry and hatred, but saying little of the real and greatest cause. Each nation felt its deep interests involved. But how? Not, surely, in the death of Ferdinand the Warlike; not, surely, in the old, half-forgotten revanche for Alsace-Lorraine; not even in the neutrality of Belgium. No! But in the possession of land overseas, in the right to colonies, the chance to levy endless tribute on the darker world,—on coolies in China, on starving peasants in India, on black savages in Africa, on dying South Sea Islanders, on Indians of the Amazon—all this and nothing more.

Though Tuchman, writing as she was during the Civil Rights Movement, may not be quoting Du Bois her look at how nationalism and antisemitism (she makes one oblique reference to the genocide in Namibia that was carried-out by Germany) certainly points to where Du Bois was going. 19th century idealism simply could not keep-up with the reality of the 20th century.

As Tuchman says: the age had a tendency "to clothe reality in sentimental garments."
For the reason why I read this book, go here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bya6sSHAG... or read the last paragraph here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I leave this book with the French going off to war against Germany. When I read my next book in part 1 of my "Watching History Pale" series we will again be watching the French march off to war, but this time in Algeria.


La Marseillaise

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough. Informative. DRY. If you are researching a subject that include the political histories of the major world powers between 1890 and 1914, this book contains a wealthy of information. It is not a light read. The detail of the politics discussed in this book is mind numbing. The section on the arts, mainly focusing on German and Russian composers was something I could have done without. It was more akin to a soap opera.

A researcher would find a wealth of information. The casual reader would likely find the book to be a great sleeping age. Readability - 2 Stars. Thoroughness - 4 Stars. Average 3 Stars.

[Taha Rabbani · Rating 4 out of 5]

اول از همه از اسم کتاب شروع کنم. برجِ فرازان ترجمه‌ی خیلی سنگینی برای proud tower هست. من که خودم بدون کسره‌ی موصوفی و به صورت صفت جمع می‌خوندمش.
اما ترجمه. حتماً یکی از دلایل این ترجمه‌ی روان، تسلط زیاد مترجم بر زبان انگلیسی، و همچنین بر دیگر زبان‌ها از جمله لاتین، هست. البته دارم به این شک می‌افتم که نکند به خاطر علاقه‌ای که به عزت‌الله فولادوند پیدا کرده‌ام انقدر ترجمه‌هایش به نظرم عالی می‌رسه. به هر حال عزت‌الله فولادوند تحصیل‌کرده‌ی آمریکا در رشته‌ی فلسفه است و تسلطش بر زبان چیز عجیبی نیست. اما فقط تسلط بر زبان مبدا نمی‌تونه ترجمه را روان بکنه و مترجم باید به زبان فارسی هم خیلی مسلط باشه تا بتونه انقدر روان ترجمه بکنه. حالا این که من به خودم اجازه می‌دم مدح یکی از بزرگ‌ترین مترجمان ایران را بکنم زیادی پرروئی می‌خواد و برای همین این مطلب رو درز می‌گیرم.
و اما ویراستاری. کتاب بیش از آن حدی که قابل قبول باشد اشکالات ویراستاری دارد. متاسفانه در مدت خواندن حواسم نبود که اشکالات ویراستاری کتاب را در جایی یادداشت کنم که الان بتونم چند تا مثال بزنم از اشکالاتش. پس بریم سر بحث بعدی. فقط یادتون باشه که من چاپ نشر سخن را خریدم و نه چاپ نشر ماهی. فکر نمی‌کنم چاپ نشر ماهی این مشکلات را داشته باشه که البته از قیمت 42000 تومانی اون هم همین انتظار می‌ره.
خود کتاب. کتاب یک جورهایی قرار است فضای بیست سی سال پیش از جنگ جهانی اول را به ما نشان بده و بگه که چی شد که کار به جنگ کشید. نویسنده (یا مترجم؟) در ابتدای کتاب می‌گه که جنگی به عظمت جنگ جهانی اول با آن همه کشته و مجروح و بی‌خانمان، نمی‌تونسته از یک فضای گل و بلبل نشأت گرفته باشه، و فقط اون موقعی همه افسوس دوران پیش از جنگ را می‌خوردن که جنگ شروع شده بود و فقط در مقایسه با جنگ، آن دوران قشنگ به نظر می‌رسه.
فصل‌های کتاب در مورد این موارد هستند: در مورد آنارشیست‌ها، اشرافیت انگلستان، رئیس مجلس آمریکا، محاکمه‌ی دریفوس در فرانسه، حال و هوای سروری دنیا در آلمان، از دست رفتن قدرت اشرافیت انگلستان و انتقال قدرت به طبقات پایین‌تر، و جنگ و دعوای سوسیالیست‌ها با همدیگر و با کشورهایشان و محو شدن ناگهانی حال و هوای جهان‌وطنی آن‌ها با شروع جنگ. و البته یک فصل هم درباره‌ی تشکیل دادگاه لاهه حرف می‌زنه.
نکته اینه که در مقایسه با آیزایا برلین - در دو کتابی که من ازش خوانده‌ام: کارل مارکس و ریشه‌های رومانتیسم - باربارا تاکمن نمی‌تونه چندان حال و هوا را نشان بده. در هر فصل - که بعضیش عنوان یک کشور را در یک دوره‌ی زمانی دارد، مثلاً انگلستان 1895:1902 - تنها بر روی یک حادثه یا یک فرد یا یک موضوع تمرکز می‌کند و آن حادثه یا فرد را شرح می‌دهد. البته موقع شرح آن فرد یا حادثه به گوشه و کنارها هم سر می‌زند و نمایی از اطراف آن به دست می‌دهد، با این حال ما حال و هوای کلی را چندان به دست نمی‌آوریم. مثلا فصل پایان روی: ایالات متحد آمریکا ما فقط به بررسی زندگی تامس رید، رئیس مجلس آمریکا می‌پردازیم و در کنار او کمی هم به بقیه. این کار گاهی باعث می‌شه که بعضی سوالات آدم هم بی‌جواب بمونه.
خیلی زیاد شد حرفام. می‌خواستم در مورد فصل‌های مختلف کتاب هم حرف بزنم ولی دیگه بسه..

[HAMiD · Rating 4 out of 5]

گویی همه ی تلاشِ آن بزرگوار، خانم باربارا تاکمن، برای نشان دادنِ نادانیِ همیشگی انسان است. بی گمان با مرور آغازین تا واپسین روزهای دورانی که در آن هستیم، پای خلقت درباره ی انسان عجیب می لنگد! خانه ی خلقت از پای بست تو گویی ویران است و اکنون در قرارگاهِ اندیشه انگار که هیچ پاسبانی نبوده باشد. دوران(نه فقط اکنون که از همیشه ی دور) دورانِ سرخوردگی و استیلاست. شلاق می کشد به تنِ آن دیگران هرکس که سواره است. مانند سرایدارِ آن برجِ به ظاهر محترم که می گفت در میان زباله های ساکنان چه بسا بسیار می گردیم برای یافتن چیزکی ارزشمند، هر چیز. یا آن آقا که گفت: استاد! اگه میشه یه بسته زیما برام بخر، گدا نیستم پول نمی خوام جون بچه ات فقط یه بسته سیگار و آقای آن کادر شده ای که پوزخند می زد به بی عملیِ ما آدم های روزگار که قدر هیچ چیز را نمی دانیم! بعد تو گفتی، چه می شه می کرد؟ همه ش داری نق می زنی، چه کاری می تونی بکنی؟ و من نگفتم که دلم می خواهد مثل قیصر، چاقوکشِ درونم را هشیارانه رها کنم در شهر و در پارادوکس خشونت و آرامش خودم را حلق آویز کنم. و حالا بعد از این معرکه گیری، گریز بزنم به شاه بیت های فردوسی، آن حکیمِ حقیقی
...
چو ضحاک شد بر جهان شهريار
برو ساليان انجمن شد هزار
سراسر زمانه بدو گشت باز
برآمد برين روزگار دراز
نهان گشت کردار فرزانگان
پراگنده شد کام ديوانگان
هنر خوار شد جادويي ارجمند
نهان راستي آشکارا گزند
شده بر بدي دست ديوان دراز
به نيکي نرفتي سخن جز به راز
#
سی و یکم اردی بهشت چهارده دو صفر

[Brad Lyerla · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 Tuchman’s account of these new tensions and energies and it is a fine book.

Tuchman organizes her book into eight chapters and they are a handy way to discuss THE PROUD TOWER. Chapter one is The Patricians. By this, Tuchman refers to the ruling class in the British Empire, the leading power in the world at that time. The Victorian Age was coming to a close, but the Conservatives were still very much in control as Tuchman opens her discussion. She focuses on Lord Salisbury and Arthur Balfour and their contemporaries. These were men of wealth, education and accomplishment in business, government, war and learning. They enjoyed a clarity of purpose that ceased to exist in the 20th century. That is not to say that they were right. Rather, they never doubted that they were right and sometimes they were. Of course, there was a great deal of hypocrisy. The Victorian Age is thought of by some today as a time of prudishness. That may have been the case for the middle class, but not at all for the privileged. Many of them enjoyed themselves greedily and sensually while feigning dignity and restraint for the benefit of the masses.

Chapter two focuses on the Anarchists in Europe and America. They are a curiosity to us today. While they had an impact in their day through their great acts of terrorism (the assassination of President McKinley, for example), their influence was brief. Anarchism simply cannot take root given its abhorrence of organization. And it faded away by the end of the Great War.

The third chapter is about the transformation of the US from a country that espoused the right of self-government and distrusted the colonial activities of the European powers to a country that actively embraced Imperialism and began its own empire initially through the Spanish American war. It is sobering to be reminded that it was the progressives who advocated imperial ambitions for the US against the better judgment of the conservatives. Of course, today our country has isolationists on both ends of the political spectrum. Theirs is an isolationism that is premised on self-interest rather than respect for the right of others to self-government. Tuchman does not address this modern sense of isolationism and, if it did exist, it seems not to have been influential during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

The fourth chapter addresses The Dreyfus Affair in France. THE PROUD TOWER effectively conveys how this shameful episode captured the attention of the entire western world and deeply undermined the prestige of the French in the international community.

Chapter five, entitled The Steady Drummer, is about the international peace efforts, ironically started by Czar Nicholas, that resulted in the Hague Conventions and the establishment of The World Court. The Czar’s motivation was not altruistic. He hoped to slow down the arms race then happening in Europe because Russia was hopelessly behind and he wanted time to catch up.

Chapter six is about the rise of Germany. Tuchman gives a great deal of attention to the arts in Germany and the accomplishments of Richard Strauss in particular. This is helpful to understanding Germany’s zeitgeist, but far more important to Europe’s story is the rise of militarism and the sense of cultural superiority among Germans during this period. Long before the Great War, Germans seem to have taken it for granted that war was unavoidable and that Germany would emerge from war in its rightful place as the dominant country and culture in Europe.

The seventh chapter is about the transfer of power in the United Kingdom from Balfour and the conservatives to Asquith and the liberals, which included the rise of the labor party and its support of home rule for Ireland. This was the period in which the House of Lords lost its last meaningful role in British government. It is also a time that is of special interest to us today. This seems to have been when the Brits lost confidence in the ability of their government to solve the deeply tangled social and economic problems then facing the United Kingdom. Great Britain was changed forever after that crisis of confidence was felt, although fortunately there was still enough of the 19th century left in Winston Churchill that he had the clarity to lead his countrymen through the Second World War when his time came.

The final chapter addresses the rise and fall of international socialism. It arose and prospered in the late 19th century, at least among intellectuals like the Fabians, for example. But it lost coherence and energy as its leaders died in the early decades of the new century. Of course, it later lost all viability in the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution.

We know now that the world was never the same again after the Great War. The rise of relativity, incompleteness, ambiguity and indecision in the 20th century transformed everything. Tuchman’s portrait of the west in the period immediately before the transformation is intellectually provocative and highly entertaining.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a prequel to The Guns of August, Tuchman examines the sociopolitical world of Europe and America leading up to World War I. Unlike Guns’ narrative approach, Tower offers a series of interlocking essays probing the world’s major powers. Thus she looks at Edwardian Britain, its class system and politics ossified in late-imperial smugness and struggling to respond to colonial wars, Irish nationalism and labor and suffragist unrest; France, whose deep-rooted social, religious and cultural divisions are stoked to the boiling point by the Dreyfus Affair; Imperial Germany, with its contrast between artistic and intellectual achievements and bellicose, warmongering leaders; and America, suddenly thrust into imperial status after a victorious war with Spain. All these countries challenge each other over military expansion, colonial possessions and long-lasting grudges, in a series of power plays (from gunboat diplomacy and terrorism to sham peace conferences) that make war inevitable. Tuchman handles these topics with remarkable skill and insight, with a hundred mini-portraits of statesmen, diplomats, soldiers, aristocrats, media figures and others enlivening her narrative. Her deft use of specific incidents and social strictures leads to chapters that, if not as inclusive as a more scholarly treatment, nonetheless illuminate the motivations of countries jostling for power better than a simple name-and-date approach. The essays dealing with broader movements (particularly Tuchman’s chapter on turn-of-the-century anarchism) often feel shallow and amorphous in comparison, with Tuchman lacking the insight into radicalism and bottom-up social movements that she shows with politics and diplomacy. In that sense, Tower is very old-fashioned; nonetheless, it does a fine job showing how the Great Powers laid the groundwork, both by accident and design, for history’s two most catastrophic wars.

[Brian Eshleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am convinced of that Barbara W. Tuchman could draw lasting principles about the behavior of humanity from a trip to the grocery store and could make understated comments on the folly revealed which are more and more penetrating as time passes. Couple that skill with the transformation so many have noted between 1890 and 1914, and we have a book that almost anyone would find worth reading. I doubt anyone else could have organized such a vast amount of material from a quarter-century and from so many parts of the West into an understandable narrative which could stand the test of time, but she has.

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...The proud tower built up through the great age of European civilization was an edifice of grandeur and passion, of riches and beauty and dark cellars. Its inhabitants lived, as compared to a later time, with more self-reliance, more confidence, more hope; greater magnificence, extravagance and elegance; more careless ease, more gaiety, more pleasure in each other's company and conversation, more injustice and hypocrisy, more misery and want, more sentiment including false sentiment, less sufferance of mediocrity, more dignity in work, more delight in nature, more zest. The Old World had much that has since been lost, whatever may have been gained........"

Barbara Tuchman's wonderful book "The Proud Tower" is what the title says it is. It is a "Portrait of the World before the War, 1890-1914". Tuchman's survey of the society at large is told through vignettes of various countries and social and policitcal changes occuring within.

The first part "The Patricians" looks at England from 1895-1902. It was a superb look at the mindset and lifestyles of the British Upper Crust. It also explains the conflict between the Conservatives and the Liberals that was seminal to the British politics of the time.

"The Idea and the Deed" is the second part of the book and it covers the Anarchist movements from 1890-1914. Tuchman's description of the futile arguments of the Anarchist "movement" and the random acts of violence to further cause.

"The End of a Dream", in the third section, covers the change in US policy towards one of an expansionist and quasi-Imperialistic policy vis a vis Spain and the influence of Admiral Mahan into turning the US into a hegemonistic power. This covers the developments of the years 1890-1902 and focuses on Republican Speaker of the House Reed, a "last of his kind" American who did not wish the US to be involved in international affairs or advetures, as his nation undertakes various actions and his political views clashing with Teddy Roosevelt.

"Give me Combat" looks at the troublesome French during the periods of 1894-1899. It is an excellent recounting of the Drefyfus Affair and the following cover up and lies that would have serious consequences for the French military and the attacks on Emille Zola.

"The Steady Drummer" covers The Hague 1899 through 1907. It covers the various Peace Conferences that began to lay an idea for an Internation frameowrk for a world wide body of law. Their futile attempts to "stop conflict" were about as useful as the modern day UN.

"Neroism is in the Air" covers Germany between 1890-1914. Much of the story looks at Strauss and his huge impact on the European music scene. The strange mix of nationalism with music is an interesting part of the tale.

"Transfer of Power" covers England from 1902-1911. It is a great story about the coflict between Lord Salisbury and David Balfour. A great look at the conflict between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The incoming Liberal victory will have interesting effects for Labour.

"The Death of Jaures" covers The Socialists between 1890-1914. A very good look at the basis and start of this evil political system and the obviously incorrect basis for the arguments of the supposed intellectuals who argue it's use. It focuses on the rise of the foul ideology and ends with the death of Juares the Socialist leader. A great look at the stupidity that inspires that similarly stupid modern adherents. It also looks at the unionization efforts in the USA. But, the true focus is on the eventual death of French Socialist Juares. The "revolution" was supposed to lead to freedom for workers. All rhat happened is that the same workers marched lock step into the killing fields of World War I. Oops.

An excellent overview of the world that was. A look at Pre-World War I Europe and the world. A superb book.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic portrait of the social and ideological ferment of years leading up to WWI, presented with passion and insight. The account of the anarchist movement is especially gripping. Tuchman's prose is close to the best I've ever seen in an historian

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vulgarising, and extremely exciting introduction to the twenty years before the First World War. Beautifully written, it really brings the world back to life.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating, authoritative, relevant, sweeping, insightful, well written, magisterial, and far too long.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the world went through a great deal during the Great War, there were many moving parts besides the political and military build-ups. Barbara W. Tuchman, pre-eminent historian and award winner, created a trilogy surrounding the Great War, the first of which explores the foundation of European (and world) society that led to four years of military clashes. Tuchman develops strong theses throughout the tome and keeps the reader informed as she contrasts and compares various societies from the late 19th century through to the onset of the Great War. A stunning introduction to this trilogy that has the reader fully prepared for Tuchman’s stellar middle book, which has garnered many international awards.

World sentiment during the last quarter of the 19th century differed greatly across the various European societies. As Barbara W. Tuchman explores in this book, the European landscape was such that the privileged could live high on the hog while the poor masses suffered greatly, their simple wishes ignored by massive change. Tuchman’s brilliant analysis of the various European communities sheds light on changing times and how each society evolved or devolved, depending on the local situation. The reader can see the differences in Edwardian England from post-unified Germany or the French experiment and rise of social change.

While this is a long tome, filled with insights and a great number of ideas, I choose not to explore most of them, as it is the reader’s own interest that will fuel their reading experience. It is clear that Tuchman argues the societal shift occurring in those latter years of the 19th century made the start of the 20th century a completely different place, awkward for some who enjoyed tradition.. Did many of these changes lead to the start of the Great War? On the surface, no, as I would be wrong to think the rise of European socialism fuelled a need for the two ‘political and military camps’ to charge at one another. However, need for change did play a massive role in the domino effect of an outraged man who killed a European monarch, which had nation states supporting their allies as they entered wartime status.

I have always loved learning about and exploring the Great War, not only from a European perspective. Tuchman’s next tome will, hopefully, whet my appetite to learn more, with American neutrality being frayed each day. So much to learn and analyses to synthesise... bring it on!

Tuchman’s tome is a stellar piece of writing. While it is long and can be somewhat weighty in its content, Tuchman rams a great deal of information into the book and leaves the reader to digest what they will. Lengthy chapters force the reader to strap in for the voyage, yet they are treated to so much interesting analysis. I loved it and am eager to see how things will progress here, hoping that I will not lose my way as there is much to assess in the second tome.

Kudos, Madam Tuchman, for a great introduction to what is sure to be a sensational trilogy.

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