And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation.

Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize-winning account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman has made her book doubly exciting - revealing the human reasons for the disasters of war. Through her unforgettable portraits of these characters and many others, Mrs. And of men like Joffre, indomitably rebuilding his shattered French armies Samsonov dying a suicide after the annihilation of the Russian 2nd Army von Kluck stubbornly committing his fatal mistake Admiral Souchon choosing his desperate and fateful course for Constantinople. The bloody catalogue of the battles of August 1914 includes the almost mythic names of Liège, Tannenberg, Mons, the Battle of the Frontiers, and Charleroi. Yet for perhaps five years before the war began, each General Staff knew what the others would do all that was planned. None of these plans allowed for the contingencies of the others, or recognized their own intrinsic errors. Russia planned a pincer invasion of East Prussia while the main German armies were involved in the West.

France, bolstered by her alliance with Russia and her 'entente' with Britain, designed her strategy in terms solely of the offensive and the attaque brusqueée. Germany intended to invade France England had committed her army to cooperation with the French Army. The German, French, English, and Russian General Staffs had had their plans for war completed as early as 10 years before hostilities began. Instead, the holocaust of August was the prelude to 4 bitter years of deadlocked war that cost a generation of European lives. Still, statesmen, field marshals, admirals, kings, and patriots believed what they wanted to believe - or what they feared not to believe - and waited in profound ignorance for victory to reveal itself within a matter of weeks. In the summer of 1914, Europe with a heap of swords piled as delicately as jackstraws, and not one could be drawn out without upsetting the others. Tuchman's magnificent best-selling work, now in 25th anniversary edition with a new preface by the author. Its tense drama continues to enthrall readers of Barbara W. This opening clash determined the future course of the war and shaped the history of our century. Published to immediate acclaim in 1962 and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1963, The Guns of August is the classic account of the cataclysmic outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the 30 days of battle that followed.

The guns of august by barbara w tuchman