The Guns of August

Author Essay

To many people, W.W.I seems like ancient history.  To me, it is the most fascinating of wars.  It is when the modern world began, or, in Barbara Tuchman’s opinion, when the 19th Century ended.  My late Great Uncle Jimmy, a Brit, joined the Army at the age of 16 by lying that he was 18 after being encouraged to do so by a recruiter.  Where did they send him?  To Ireland, to train horses for the cavalry!  This was the same war that saw the debut of the airplane, submarine, tank, poison gas, machine gun, flamethrower, and hand grenade!

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning history, Tuchman writes about the turning point of the year 1914–the month leading up to the war and the first month of the war.  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 is masterful at portraying this abrupt change from 19th to 20th Century.  And how she manages to make the story utterly suspenseful, when we already know the outcome, is the mark of a great writer, and a classic volume of history.

Doug Grad, Editor