The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series

Readers attracted to military history, particularly that of WWI, may be able to put up with the book's excruciating detail. But they'll probably want maps on the wall, and a list to keep track of the scores of military personnel and their ranks and commands. Others, like me, are likely to find the strategy and battles of the first month of the war presented at a level of detail that makes the book insufferably boring. I slogged through over 400 pages, but decided I couldn't bear 150 more.

This book is very dense. On one hand there were times when I felt like I was trying to read a concrete block. On the plus side, Tuchman brings an awesomely detailed account of the first month of WWI. Something else that bothered me about this book was her choice of words. I thought that some of her descriptions of historical figures and situations were more emotionally charged than should be in a serious account of history. But her wording also helped make the book less boring to read.

This is the third in the series of random texts recommended by Entertainment Weekly magazine for those suffering from Downton Abbey withdrawal. It comes with high accolades. It is cited as the “favorite novel of JFK.,” and as one of the finest pieces of history ever written. I can see why. But it is too name-and-place intensive to make it either digestible or even pleasurable as a reading experience. As a recollection of the first month only of WWI, it IS an incredible tour-de-force: incisive, insightful. Her command of the people seems omniscient, frightening, even. Overpowering, shall we say? The author writes as though she had been there, standing side by side with the kings, Czars, generals, and ministers of state, reporting their most minute thoughts, prejudices, avarices, strengths, and weaknesses. I found it very overwhelming. I have fancied myself a student of history. The depths of her story put my shallow understanding to shame, and made this book very difficult to read. This is not the fault of the text, but my own shortcoming as a reader. On a positive note, the book gave me further insights into what great idiots the whole of humankind is made by the on-going body politic and those we elect to make political decisions that affect us and the country in which we live. In particular, I was appalled by the expose into the mindset of the German people, whose Teutonic roots of savagery rose to the surface as a people intent on subjugating the entire world to their superior existence. I found this expose very frightening, and wonder what hubris awaits to further arise and create bedlam and chaos for earth? Let me put the amount of detail in this novel into perspective for you. If this author could so handily write 525 pages about only the first thirty days of a four-year war, it follows that she could write FIFTY more 500 page books fo each of the warring months to follow, or about 25,000 pages. Somehow, I’m sure she could have written more, although the shame and disgust I felt after reading about the atrocities in the first month would preclude me from reading any of them. **** = Four Stars.