THE GUNS OF AUGUST

The Guns of August

Introduction

This book, written by Bárbara W. Tuchman is, without doubt, one of the masterpieces of contemporary historiography. By its appearance in the United States in 1962, it became one of the reference books on the First World War. 

The book tells us the story of the first thirty-one days that were known as 'The Great War', which lasted from 1914 to 1918. The focus in this initial period, as the author herself explains in the preface, was due to the confluence of several factors: her desire to write about 1914 as a key year to the changes experienced by the world. The proposal that was written by Cecil Scott as British writing, about the legendary Battle of Mons between the British Expeditionary Force and the German army, and finally, the desire for Tuchman to write about the episode of the flight by the Mediterranean Sea of the German battleship Goeben. 

Description and Analysis

Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989), is a writer, journalist and American historian, and also the Pulitzer Prize winner. Her lifetime was devoted to the history and several outstanding works are in her credit, but here we will focus on a specific work that has helped us to meet some of the events of the First World War through this book. Here we speak of "The Guns of August", a work which won its first Pulitzer Prize. This is a fascinating history of the beginnings of World War One. It's all true, and all documented, and even though it's a dense read, the huge cast of characters springs to life. This is the story of a war that changed the course of history. And it's also a story of the men who make the war. The reader gets to see the blunders and the madness and the personal feuds. And the humanity of the imperfect human beings who make the decisions that result in slaughter. The narrative of the month of August 1914 is described hour by hour. Belgium has to make a decision to accept an awful defeat or willingly allow the Germans to march through their neutral territory. There are alliances in place that are just waiting to be broken. The Russians come into the war. So do the British, even though it is with much reluctance. The basic war is between Germany and France, almost a continuation of the defeat the French suffered at the hands of the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.

This book explains clearly and in detail the atmosphere that prevails in the summer of 1914, from what had previously contributed to that state of affairs until the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28 by a Serbian nationalist. To say that the description of the funeral procession of King Edward VII of England in 1910 was impressive and all that goes with this event related to the events that subsequently occurred after this. The penalty was a joy to others.

The German Schlieffen Plan, the Plan 17, Plan W French or British, all of which are ...