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The Guns of August cover art

The Guns of August

By: Barbara W. Tuchman
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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Summary

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of Kings and Kaisers and Czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along with war. How quickly it all changed...and how horrible it became.

Tuchman masterfully portrays this transition from 19th to 20th Century, focusing on the turning point in the year 1914: the month leading up to the war and the first month of the war. With fine attention to detail, she reveals how and why the war started, and why it could have been stopped but wasn't, managing to make the story utterly suspenseful even when we already know the outcome.

©1990 Dr. Lester Tuchman (P)2005 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"More dramatic than fiction...a magnificent narrative - beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced...The product of painstaking and sophisticated research." (Chicago Tribune)

What listeners say about The Guns of August

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    3 out of 5 stars

Not a good choice for an audio version

This is a book of highly detailed scholarship that lays out all the factors and players that led to the start of the First World War. However, I found it too densely packed with facts, lists and characters to work well as an audio-book.

This audio version is an anniversary edition 25 years after the first publication and opens with a self-congratulatory introduction by the author who also felt no changes were necessary, which I found ironic as the first sentence of the book refers to Edward the Seventh as the King of England. Time and time again she refers to England and the English when it should have been Britain/United Kingdom and British. Particularly ironic, for example, when in one instance the Gordon Highlander Regiment is referred to within a few sentences. I acknowledge that many foreigners refer to the England when meaning the UK but an historian should know better.

I enjoy history books but gave up on this one after a few hours. I have been listening to a series of war novels recently and found part one of Ken Follett's Century Trilogy "Fall of Giants" a moving account of World War One that was also informative about the factors that led to the start of that war but in a more digestible form.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A fine and interesting book

Barbara Tuchman won a Pulitzer Prize for this book and it is easy to understand why. She deals with a massively important turning point in history and writes in such an uncluttered and interesting style, and strikes a nicely judged balance between the historical narrative and comment. But you do need to concentrate to keep a grip of the huge cast of characters and the foreign names!

Superbly well narrated.

The only problem with listening to audio history books with a military them is that unless your grasp of of the geography is very good, you occasionly need to resort to a map to keep track of what's going on. But this does not detract from the enjoyment of the book.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Completely gripping

The reviews for this book tempted me to get it despite a feeling that there surely couldn't be anything new to say about the first world war. However; it grips from the start to create a clear picture of what was driving the seemingly non-sensical start of world war one and how the first few months of the war unfolded. If all of that sounds a bit dry there are a sequence of gloriously bonkers characters amongst the ranks of Europe's nobility and military class which add fascinating human colour to the epic historical sweep

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

World War I: The First Month

What did you like most about The Guns of August?

Its just a great history book. In the centenary year of the start of the war I've decided to listen/read a few books about the war. I don't think I could have chosen a better place to start. Tuchman brings the war to life with her well researched book. bringing the characters of Moltke, Joffre and French to life. It deals with the events of the first month of WWI with the countries affected by the Schlieffen Plan.

What did you like best about this story?

It was an easy listen! There are a lot of people and events to memorise, but Tuchman does it so well. I got a little confused with the Russian names involved in the Battle of Tannenburg in East Prussia but this was only one chapter. The battle scenes and events were described really well and you got to feel the exhaustion and confusion of the soldier as well as the plans, frustrations and organistion the generals had to do.

Have you listened to any of Nadia May’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Nadia May's performance was superb. Considering it was a history of a war and all the voices baring a handful were male, she bought the people to life. Definitely someone I'd listen to again.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

You couldn't help but feel sorry for the brave Belgium people. The first European people to get a taste of total war.

Any additional comments?

A great listen. It does help if you know a little of the causes of WWI as the book doesn't deal very much with the Balkans, or the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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The narration.

Very enjoyable. If you can call industrial slaughter enjoyable, of course. A good work of history.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Ed
  • 05-06-23

Inspiring

I wondered why both my parents read this book when it was first published and now I know why. The descriptions of battles and the movement of armies are as fluent as the battles were chaotic and the descriptions of the major generals and other leading participants are a lesson in compact brevity.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A very well written history of war

War is no my favourite subject. But this is a description of the first month of WWI that is something out of the ordinary, With interesting portraits of the main players in Germany, Belgium, Russia, France and England and with a comprehensive, if not sometimes a bit too detailed, description of all the events leading up to the battle of Marne.
It leaves me with a deep feeling of sorrow for the meaningless of war and that the lifes of millions can be in the hands of so mediocre or even useless military commanders.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An amazing book about a terrible war.

A page turning book with lots of interesting facts and actually some humor. Everybody should read it.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating History

Whatever new information has emerged since she wrote it, this book is nevertheless an outstanding description by Barbara Tuchman of the military & political events of August 1914. Wanda McCaddon's reading of it is very good too. I especially enjoyed the boot being put in to Sir John French! Smith-Dorrien would have enjoyed it too!

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A great boon

Reading a lot of newer books on ww1 I've often heard Tuchmans Guns of August referenced.

In many ways this is the main book on that first month.

Now I finally got round to it and I was not dissapointed. This is truly a masterpiece. That's all there is to it.

Very enjoyable.

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