The Guns of August
- Author Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrator Wanda McCaddon
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date 1 October 2008
- Run Time 19 hours and 10 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre European history, First World War, General and world history.
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What to expect
In this Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I.
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 masterfully portrays this transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, focusing on the turning point in the year 1914, the month leading up to the war, and the first month of the war. With fine attention to detail, she reveals how and why the war started and why it could have been stopped but wasn't, managing to make the story utterly suspenseful even when we already know the outcome.
A classic historical survey of a time and a people we all need to know more about, The Guns of August will not be forgotten.
Critics Review
u201cTuchmanu2019s masterpiece of historical reconstruction has been given a narrator who comprehends in full its enormous narrative poweru2026While Tuchmanu2019s large cast of armies and their generals is challenging, [McCaddon] lessens this difficulty with her mimicry of national accents, as well as her pacing and variations in tone. [An] unforgettable listening experienceu2026Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.u201d
“Brilliant…Her narrative grips the mind.”
“Fascinating…One of the finest works of history written…A splendid and glittering performance.”
“An epic never flagging in suspense.”
“I have been unable to put this book down…Barbara W. Tuchman writes brilliantly and inspiringly...The Guns of August is lucid, fair, critical, and witty.”
“In provoking musing thoughts, Tuchman has no contemporary equal. Her book, thus, has a vitality that transcends its narrative virtues, which are considerable, and its feel for characterizations, which is excellent.”
“More dramatic than fiction...Magnificent…Beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced...The product of painstaking and sophisticated research.”
“Narrator [Wanda McCaddon] sounds exactly as listeners would expect historian Barbara Tuchman to sound: educated, knowledgeable and fascinated with her subject —like the best kind of history professor—and her British accent lends more authority.”
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