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The Proud Tower

A Portrait of the World before the War, 1890–1914

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The Proud Tower

By: Barbara W. Tuchman
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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The fateful quarter century leading up to World War I was a time when the world of privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of protest was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.”

The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change to that point in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.

Barbara Tuchman brings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: 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; two peace conferences in the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of socialism, epitomized by the death of heroic Jean Jaurès on the night the war began and an epoch ended.

©1962 , 1963, 1965 by Barbara W. Tuchman (P)2005 Blackstone Publishing 19th Century 20th Century Military Modern War Socialism Russia Imperialism Soviet Union Capitalism Royalty Latin American Middle Ages Winston Churchill United Kingdom British Empire Interwar Period
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Critic reviews

“Blackstone’s inspired pairing of narrator [Wanda McCaddon] with the work of Barbara Tuchman introduces a new generation to the pleasures of one of the twentieth century’s most popular and esteemed historians.”

(Audiofile)

“A stunning command of the storyteller’s arts of swift pacing, tense exposition, and colorful scene construction.”

(Newsweek)

“Mrs. Tuchman paints the scene for us with a masterly brush, a scene glittering and brilliant, sumptuous and outrageous.”

(New York Herald Tribune)

“A rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish…It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.”

(New York Times)

“An exquisitely written and thoroughly engrossing work…The author’s knowledge and skill are so impressive that they whet the appetite for more…An esthetically rewarding experience. No one should forgo the opportunity.”

(Chicago Tribune)

“Mrs. Tuchman’s popularity is due to more than her skill with words…She never loses sight of individuals, and she is not afraid to tell a story…As in all her books, this one is resplendent with people.”

(New York Times Book Review)
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This might be my favourite from Tuchman. The narrative and subject matter fits her style very well, and the book remains entertaining and revealing throughout. I also thought the narrator, who I haven't been a huge fan of in the past, did a great job here bringing it to life.

Maybe Barbara Tuchman's best

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Superb account of politics and society before 1914; a great complement to her earlier book, August 1914 (The Guns of August).
Beautifully read.

Superb account of politics and society before 1914

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As usual, hugely interesting and superbly written. It is a good idea, I think, to read this before progressing to August 1914.

Predictably excellent

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The wonderful narrative writing of Professor Tuchmann with the wonderful reading of Wanda McCaddon. It almost doesn't matter what the subject is or whether the text is right, it's just so enjoyable

Doubly brilliant

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There are a flurry of new books about the run up to WW1. But despite its being nearly 50 years old I went for Tuchman because The Guns of August is a wonderful account of the war itself, A Distant Mirror is one of my favourite listens about medieval life and in all her writing she strikes a nice balance between strategic overview, domestic detail and vivid personalities. Other subscribers have complained that Tuchman's narrators sound so upper class that it puts them off but that's always felt to me to be a dumb thing to criticise. No narrator should have to apologise for their origins and narration should surely be judged by clarity and tone. Tuchman's stuff always scores highly in both regards.

The Proud Tower itself emerges from Tuchman's research as a sequence of essays on aspects of life between 1890 to 1914 that struck her as significant. It's not the books she expected to write and as a result it's not the book I expected to read making it more interesting and surprising than I anticipated. An example of this is the time she spends focusing on the significance of anarchism and its relationship to the emerging communist ideology. Not a subject I knew much about and not one I thought of as influential in the run up to the war but Tuchman makes an interesting and compelling case for its significance.

I'm only giving this 4 stars because it didn't quite reach the extraordinarily high standards of the books mentioned above but frankly not much does. But if you fancy a bit of old school history with a really strong authorial voice this is a great listen

A triumph of "amateur" history

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