The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I

Written in 1962, this is a fascinating history of the beginnings of WW1 and is the result of a vast amount of research. 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. There are maps in the book describing the battles. There are also photographs. But I must admit that I barely looked at the maps. And I found all the photos of the elderly generals very similar. What I did love though was the sweep of the story as well as the many details that go into waging a war. Previously, most war books I've read had to do with the experience of the soldiers. But this book is about the experience of making decisions, often based on folly. And it opened my eyes to how vulnerable the ordinary person is to the whims of the generals and the forces of pure chance. Ms. Tuchman also had a sense of irony and humor and sometimes I found myself laughing out loud. 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 France and Germany, almost a continuation of the defeat the French suffered at the hands of the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Before I read this book, I didn't know much about WW1. Now I do. It was a war that defined the breakdown of the European nobility and set the stage for the next war, which was even more horrific. It taught me a lot, especially about how many people wind up dying because of the quest for power. It saddened me too because this quest for power is basic. So is the folly of mankind. The only thing that has changed is technology. This book is a masterful work. It lays the groundwork for an understanding of the mechanics of war. I might not remember all of the names of the generals or the battle plans. But I will always remember the feeling of being right there, watching the decisions being made, marching for miles in spite of fatigue, handling the big guns, making courageous decisions that sometimes led to disaster. And, especially, knowing that this is the true face of war. Highly recommended.

“The Guns of August” has been called the book that saved the world. In the fall of 1962, looking at each other across the island of Cuba, the United States and the Soviet Union came nose to nose to pulling the trigger on a nuclear weapons war. United States Air Force U2 pilot Major Rudolf Anderson, USAF was shot down and killed. “Our guest has been up there for over an hour,” [Russian] Lieutenant General Stepan Grechko told a deputy. “I think we should give the order to shoot it down, as it is discovering our positions in depth.” With the commanding general, the only man authorized to order a surface-to-air missile launch, nowhere to be found, Grechko gave the order himself: “Destroy Target Number 33.” American Generals urged President Kennedy to order an attack on Cuba. The President said that one passage from Barbara Tuchman’s book gave him the courage to resist the pressure of his generals. “Your Majesty,” General Moltke said to the Kaiser, “it cannot be done” when the German army began its advance into Belgium and the Kaiser ordered Moltke to stop The trains are already in motion--and with that simple phrase, a war that took over 10 million lives was launched. I have read “Guns” several times over the years and I know how the story ends, yet I follow each decision as though it were now, each description as though it is happening, not has happened. It is an incredible story of horror, yet with examples of incredible courage. Her humor is able to shine through the darkness of the times with her characterizations of the Generals and Statesmen, Bethmann-Hollweg, “who means well feebly”, British Field Marshall Sir John French, “who knows nothing at all about the subject” and most of these are simply quotations made by other participants. Her effort was tireless, her research masterful, and her writing brilliant. I work with soldiers in the recruiting group here and I have bought and given this book to several of the sergeants hoping that it will percolate upward. It’s a command decision book and anyone who would think about war should understand the true horror of war. Not only were soldiers injured, blinded, maimed and killed, but the general population was starved so much that the Germans called the time “the turnip winter”. No bombs fell on Berlin but Germans suffered gravely. Paris was almost reached by the German armies until German General Von Kluck made one strategic mistake and presented his flank to the retreating French army. Remember too, this deals only with August, only a single month of a war that was to last four years, and to be the trigger for the next war, World War II, in which 60 million lives were lost. I believe an entire semester course should be taught using this book, not just in college, but also in high school. One thing I should mention. I speak both German and French, and read in them, so it can be a challenge with some of the reports---but, don’t give up on it. Her writing still come through, loud and clear, and clairvoyant. Stephen Joe Payne

A masterfully written and easy-to-read account of the first month of the First World War. Refreshingly, the book does not begin with the demise of the Habsburg heir, but with an account of a prior funeral, which serves to showcase the peculiar propensities and invidious and insidious intentions of Kaiser Wilhelm II. My only quarrel with Tuchman is that after documenting the Kaiser’s habitually psychotic rants, she succumbs to the universal tendency to take his August 1st session with General Moltke at face value, and to credit Willy with cold feet at the last minute. Nothing could be further from the truth: Wilhelm II was a master manipulator, and he made sure to snare everyone (including Moltke) in his web of deception, so that he would be “on the record” as being blameless for acting on his long-cherished desire to prosecute the ultimate war of Teutonic hegemony. The photographs selected for the book are all unusual: none of them became the iconic images seen in later histories. The maps that are included are minimalist in design (black-and-white line drawings), but most of them manage to convey troop movements understandably. (The endpaper maps are the exception: they suffer from the inclusion of confusing topographic features, and a lack of contrast due to their being rendered in shades of grey.) Chapters are given descriptive titles, making the table of contents the helpful tool it is meant to be. Tuchman employs an unwieldy end-notes system, but she does it with diligent attention to detail, so the reader is not left wondering where the in-text quotations came from. The book is thoroughly indexed. I read the public library’s well-thumbed 1962 first edition, but added a copy to my own library, for further study.

I've read military history most of my life, and this book is definitely a classic. The depth of her research, across several languages, across the seas and across the Western and Eastern fronts, is impressive. To refine all of that research and multiple perspectives into diamond-bright prose makes this book even more remarkable. Military history buffs will definitely want this on their shelves. How have I not read this before? Her chapter on the chase of the Goeben is one of the best naval combat descriptions I have come across. Her section on Tannenberg is also excellent. And through it all, she shows the events that led to the failure of both Plan 17 and the Schlieffen Plan in minute but thorough detail. As I read, and as it ended, I had that rare feeling when I read a book of this quality--give me more! If only she had covered each year of the war with such grasp of character, passion for research, and exquisite storytelling. As usual in such military history works, the political background may be cursory--too cursory for some, given some comments I've seen. Yes, you may have to go elsewhere for such political histories, but then, should we be surprised? The title, after all, is "The GUNS of August," and Tuchman delivers. The focus is not on diplomacy (not that it ever had a chance to develop in 1914, given the treaties that doomed Europe), but on the hopes that the war once started could be won speedily. The mindset of each military, and of each countries' leadership, is well told, and provides ample background for how these battles unfolded. I have a few quibbles, which have more to do with the state of book editing today than Tuchman. First were the typographical errors I found while reading this edition. I can't compare this to other editions in this regard, but a literary achievement such as this deserves to be polished occasionally. Second, while there are maps--good maps that illustrate the action--they did not translate well into paperback, and therefore readers may want a historical atlas to accompany this fine, fine narrative. Lastly, Tuchman seems to like to show off her French, and while her use of sentences from sources add welcome color and character, she was inconsistent in translating them--a strange flaw, given the lengths to which she devoted to writing such a literary monument in her native tongue. Despite these minor faults, it's still a 5-star book.

There is a quote toward the end of this book, actually it's in the Afterword, that I believe summarizes very well what we have read in its 524 pages. This is from the French Chief of Intelligence speaking specifically of the Russians attack on the Germans in August 1914 which had come sooner than the Germans anticipated. It became necessary then for the Germans to shift two divisions from the Western Front in Belgium/France to the Eastern Front. In a short time, the Russians lost an entire army in the ensuing battles: "Let us render to our Allies the homage that is their due, for one of the elements of our victory was their debacle." The "Guns of War" is rife with debacle, incredible lapses of common sense and good judgment, disregard for orders, and sometimes, nerve. As is true in all wars. But in this book we are focused on just one month, August 1914. The title is quite literal. Coming into the War, both sides had very different expectations for the eventual outcome, but many on both sides anticipated a quick war. By the end of the month though, it was quite obvious that such was not to be the case. Tuchman goes into considerable detail for most of the battles fought during that time. We come to know quite well the 6-10 Generals leading the armies of each side. She clearly has her heroes and her disappointments, and she describes them, their strengths, and their weaknesses in detail. She was particularly kind to the Belgians for the efforts and sacrifices both the military and civilians made and suffered to retard the advance of the Germans. She also saluted the French, recognizing that they had the highest losses per capita of the key combatants. She was very critical of Sir John French, first leader of the British Expeditionary Forces, for his frequent reticence to engage in "risky" battles. Though I rate the book five stars, I encountered a number of disappointments. I wish Tuchman had written more about the circumstances that drew these countries into battle at this particular moment - and no, it was not just the assassination of the Archduke. Consequently, I bought a copy of "The Sleepwalkers" by Clark and will read it next. I recommend against the Guns paperback edition. The reprint of maps is terrible. I know the hardbound is out of print at the moment but if I had it to do over, I would have bought a used copy of it instead. I did buy the DK edition of WWl (coffee table size), with lots of photos and maps - and it provides very good summaries of events subsequent to August 1914 through to the signing of the Treaty; I recommend it highly. I also bought an even larger map book of WWl battles by Neiberg. (All of these books are available from Amazon.) Tuchman used an awful lot of French phrases in side comments, and the meaning in context of many was not clear - this was extremely annoying since I don't parlevous. Bottomline, though more than 50 years old this book is still very good but if you are going to read in depth about the causes, the War, the Treaty, and the Aftermath, you might want to pursue other books. There is just a ton of very excellent stuff out there and much of it has been written since 2000.

Barbara Tuchman’s brilliant account of WWI reads like a veritable march of folly (the name, BTW, of another of her wonderful books; this a collection of stimulating essays The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam ). Some few instances of bravery, sacrifice, courage in the face of the enemy—even nobility—run counter to the general bungling, egotism, cowardice, petulance, and arrogance of the combatants. Germany, as the aggressor, is inevitably seen in the least favorable light. To Kaiser Wilhelm and the majority of his generals, collateral damage was inevitable, even beneficial when used opportunistically as a deterrent to home resistance. (It was not effective, however; it never is. Brutality visited upon a conquered people itself breeds ever escalating rage and brutality until the corpses pile up, row upon row.) However, other countries, including France and Russia, are not spared the barbs of her fair-minded reportage and deft analyses. One leitmotif of the book is the implicit question: Are all of the suffering, maiming, and deaths worth the paltry material gains in such an all-out war? The survivors of this cataclysm after all, comprise the society known presciently as the Lost Generation (as the garage mechanic in the South of France told Gertrude Stein and the other expatriates of her coterie, “vous êtes une génération perdus!”) And they were: the loss of men of potential genius in combat in the infamous trench warfare is absolutely staggering and well-documented here. As usual, the ultimate victims of the war are the non-combatants, that general population of people who simply want to go about their business as usual, but who are sacrificed either as the inevitable collateral damage of war or as mere observers caught in the lethal crossfire of warring armies. In particular, the gruesome accounts of the murder of civilians and the destruction of whole cities by the Germans in occupied towns in Belgium and Norther France are hard to countenance. In some respects these atrocities presage the even more grisly horrors of World War II. In Tuchman’s account, few individuals come across unscathed, and she chronicles the almost obscene blunders and bungling of the personalities leading the conflict soberly, and, occasionally, with a wry humor that is greatly appreciated by the reader. Tuchman leads you like Dante’s Virgil into the inferno of “the war to end all wars.” On the way you delve into the minds of generals, prime ministers, and politicians alike, and you feel that what you are reading is a first-hand account, not one written decades after the events took place. Tuchman won a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize in 1963. (For those of you who like lists, Tuckman’s book is number 16 on Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books since 1900.)

Tuchman's recounting of events in the opening days of WWI is engaging, informative, and a master class in how hubris should be one of the seven (or eight) deadly sins. Generals and politicians on all side who were convinced of their own righteousness pushing for a war they said would be won in just a few weeks. (Iraq and Afghanistan come to mind at this point.) WWI lasted four years, cost ten million lives, and set the stage for WWII. The Kindle version is a text-to-digital conversion. Not surprising since original was published in 1962. But it's a terrible, lazy conversion. Misinterpreted characters appear frequently throughout, sometimes making the text indecipherable. There is no table of contents, no notes, no maps, no photographs. "Guns of August" is an important work of history. It deserved the extra attention a modestly skilled editor could have brought to the e-book. But the publisher, suffering from their own hubris, felt that extra effort was unnecessary.

No wonder Barbara Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize for this book! No wonder the Pulitzer committee, which only grants prizes for histories made about US history, made an exception for this amazing book. It is an astonishingly well-written history of how the Great War got started, and how the combatants' long-planned, dashing offensives of the first few weeks ground to a bloody, muddy stalemate that lasted four years. In the month of August, 1914, at least 250,000 Frenchmen were killed or wounded. That does not include the German and Belgian combatants or civilians. Tuchman's writing style is so fluid, so engaging, that you feel like you're right there with these generals as they stick to their theories of war even as they disintegrate in the realities of combat. These moustached and monocled generals become real people with enormous egos and personal follies, worries, fears and personal ambitions. She brings us into the war rooms, and out into the hot European fields of August, 1914. She is able to paint the French and Belgian countryside in beautifully spare prose. She vividly describes fresh German troops entering the Belgian town of Liege', their new leather belts, scabbards and harnesses squeaking as they marched. Tuchman's style of writing is superb, giving us just enough detail, but somehow never bogging down into an overly stuffed, academic style which any book about the Great War could easily get trapped in, given the density of the politics of the war. That she chose not to give a full scale history of the entire war, but the few months prior to, and the first month of active combat, was a brilliant decision. She chooses to end the book just as the Allies are about to begin the counter-offensive against the German juggernaut threatening Paris, which would become the Battle of the Marne. She explains in the brief afterward that this battle is when the war - which many thought would be over by Christmas - became the bloody deadlock, the cataclysm which was the Great War, which led to an unsettled peace, and which set the stage for WWII. Any who wishes to understand the Great War must start with this book. I can't rave enough about it enough. It is brilliant.

If you want to know a little bit of history but not just the dry bits then this is a great book. There is an incredible amount of detail - skim over the bits that aren’t as interesting to get an over all picture of the mood of the times

We just recently remembered the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice. Wars fought a century ago tend to be somewhat difficult to recall in their key features. Four elements need to be seared into our conscience after a reading of Mrs. Tuchman's excellent 1962 offering: First, how close the first month of the war came to being a total Allied debacle. The Germans were essentially a few armies and a couple of days away from sweeping away the French outside of Paris. The Battle of the Marne revealed itself to be a pivotal point in the war, but only insofar as it allowed for the war to go on. The Germans were a few miles away from Paris, bombed it profusely and could almost see it in their dreams. The French losses and the poor cooperation with the British really almost cost the Allies the War. Had the Russians not essentially accepted to enter the war weeks before they could conceivably be ready, and accepted to lose completely against East Prussian armies, the story might/would have been different. It was really close. Second, the idea that decisive battles would make or break victory has been put to rest. The first month and the Battle of the Marne where Paris was defended, gave way to the horror of trench warfare, which we are currently experiencing again in Ukraine. Weapons, even in 1914, gave the defense of territory a huge advantage. That WW1 became a war of defense of hard fought territory defined how war between belligerents could now be viewed. Third, while this is not Tuchman's strength, she attempts to address some of the Zeitgeist of the age that might have led to the war: the sense of jealousy that Germans may have felt of French and British colonial power, their belief in their superior science and weaponry, their disdain for treaties and certain alliances, etc. All of these ideas are part of the fiction that political figures give the people that support them in an attempt to justify their geopolitical ambitions. It has been true throughout history, as it was true in the beginning of the 20th century in the unfinished war of 1914-18, in the terrible follow-up war a mere 21 years later and in the manner in which it is reflected in all manners of genocide and wars since then. There is something about the fallacy of how we view ourselves and others that somehow justifies war. Tuchman does not do this point justice. For a more thorough treatment of this idea as it pertains to WW1, read MacMillan's "The War That Ended Peace". Finally, the issues that were at the heart of WW1 were not resolved, they led to a century of horrible conflict and political domination by some over others. There has always been the idea that wars can bring us in better directions from a social and political perspective. In retrospect, I fail to see anything good emanating from WW1. All I observe is a profound human tendency to aggression, even in the context of progress and hope, a penchant for violence even when everything else points towards peace. All of the Stephen Pinkers of this world cannot replace the 20 million deaths of WW1 and the horrible century that was the 20th. All of the apostles of human improvement cannot account for the horror we so glibly enter into. There is a gaping wound that will not heal.

As other reviews, both on Amazon and elsewhere, have said, this is an amazing book. While it is very much "non-fiction" and, in many ways, "a history book", it is very well written, and very readable. Some of the sentences / paragraphs are incredibly well crafted, and you'll probably learn some new words along the way e.g. tatterdemalion. I loved that one. The level / depth of research behind this book is phenomenal, and to think this 500 pages + represents only the first month of a 4 yrs + war. For me, it has done a few things. First, I feel much more informed about the reasons for the onset of WW1. I had previously heard that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the most important cause for the start of WW1, but I now know that was really only a part of the story. This book outlines the extent to which Germany had been "planning" war, and talking about extending its reach/influence through war, for many years before 1914. I personally had no idea that this was such an important factor or so openly discussed in Germany prior to the war. It also makes an important connection back to a war in 1870, which isn't covered in detail but is clearly a major factor. Second, I now feel better informed about the role Britain played at the start of the war or, to be more precise, the role it didn't play in that first month. As a nation we're brought-up to think we played a huge role in both world wars and, while this isn't disputed as a whole, it seems we didn't entirely cover ourselves in glory in that first month (notwithstanding the fact that we did send thousands of troops, when no other core European nation did, with the exception of Russia). Third, I wasn't really clear how Belgium came into being, and I'm now much clearer on that. I also have a renewed respect for Belgium and the way they stood-up to the initial invasion, in the face of certain defeat, in 1914. Inspiring stuff. Finally, it has reinforced the importance of communication, relationships and trust in any large-scale human endeavour. That these were, in large parts at least, missing on the Allied side in the first month of the war seems clear, though the communication piece can be partly ascribed to the lack of modern technology. It also brings home the fact that, sometimes, "you get what you prepare for" and that, if you prepare enough for bad things to happen, you can sometimes make them happen. That's how it felt to me anyhow. My only criticism is that, at times, I found it extremely difficult to keep in my head the various individuals, battle fronts, town names and situations. At certain points the author gets into such depths on these points that I got lost, and couldn't keep that multi-dimensional view in my head. Probably others will do better. But, overall, I'd highly recommend this book. It's obviously very old (1960s I think), but, as a clear account of that first terrible month, it is excellent to read and very informative indeed. It has left wanting to learn more about WW1, though I'm not sure the next 4 yrs make for particularly happy reading (especially not in the middle of a pandemic...)

Wer einmal dieses Buch in die Hände genommen hat, legt es so schnell nicht mehr weg. Frau Tuchmann erweckt mit einzigartiger Kunstfertigkeit sprachgewaltig eine scheinbar längst vergangene Epoche zum Leben. Sie beschwört die Geister der Vergangenheit und lässt sie ihre eigene Geschichte erzählen: da liefern sich hohe Generäle Dispute, der Kaiser gibt abfällige Bemerkungen von sich und der ganze Wahnsinn der Kriegsmaschinerie offenbart seine hässliche Fratze. Das hier ist kein Telefonbuch voller trockener Daten und Statistiken, hier geht es um die Menschen und wie sie ihre Machtpositionen ausgestaltet haben. Die Autorin meistert dabei den gefährlichen Drahtseilakt zwischen guter Unterhaltung auf der einen Seite und der Vermittlung von knallharten Fakten auf der anderen, mit Bravour. Obwohl man heutzutage scheinbar den kompletten Verlauf des ersten Weltkriegs bereits kennt, werden nochmal tiefe Einblicke in die maßgeblichen politischen und militärischen Entscheidungsprozesse gewährt. Teilweise werden die Geschehnisse akribisch Stunde für Stunde beleuchtet. Der im Buch abgedeckte Zeitraum umfasst die ersten paar Monate des Konfliktes. Also warum und wie der Krieg begann, wer die Akteure waren und wie die ersten Wochen des offenen Kampfes für alle Seiten abgelaufen sind. Es geht nicht um eine generelle Zusammenfassung des gesamten ersten Weltkriegs, sondern einen bewusst scharfen Blick auf den Anfang. Ein spannendes Stück Geschichte, präsentiert von einer hochbegabten Autorin.

Contiene un asombroso grado de detalle. Recopila bastantes testimonios de la época de personajes en los más altos rangos, como de soldados rasos, civiles. Todo ayuda a vislumbrar mejor los eventos que desencadenan la primera guerra mundial, así como los primeros días del conflicto. Lo recomiendo mucho, para quien le interese el tema.