The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchmann

This book won the Pulitzer Prize back in the sixties. One of the most favored books on the history of World War I the book is interesting in that rather than telling the whole story of World War I it centers almost exclively on the first month, thus the title, The Guns of August.

Something rare happened on this book. I did not enjoy it. It was not the material she had to work with. It is an entrancing subject. World War I is perhaps, in todays time, the most unstudied and understood war. How it started is very interesting. The politics is something that is bizarre. The story of the Ottoman empire being pulled in by the Germans and how that affects our history even today is something that needs to be more widely understood.

Still for me it is the story, the characters, the individuals and this book is primarily a military history. The story of battles and the strategy of them is always the least interesting part of the story for me.

So with a huge reading list I am always slogging through I did what I rarely do. At page 170 I set this book aside. It was not my cup of tea.

I find that Tuchman's writing was even a bit clunky but it must have been the material she chose to highlight. I am not foolish or provincial enough to think that we write better today than she did in her time. For whatever reason I did not find it to work for me.

Perhaps as a military history yes but for those interested in the War there must be a better choice out there.