The Proud Tower

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What to expect

The fateful quarter century leading up to World War I was a time when the world of privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of protest was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.”

The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change to that point in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.

Barbara Tuchman brings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy; the anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; two peace conferences in the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of socialism, epitomized by the death of heroic Jean Jaurès on the night the war began and an epoch ended.

Critics Review

  • “Blackstone’s inspired pairing of narrator [Wanda McCaddon] with the work of Barbara Tuchman introduces a new generation to the pleasures of one of the twentieth century’s most popular and esteemed historians.”

    Audiofile

  • “A stunning command of the storyteller’s arts of swift pacing, tense exposition, and colorful scene construction.”

    Newsweek

  • “Mrs. Tuchman paints the scene for us with a masterly brush, a scene glittering and brilliant, sumptuous and outrageous.”

    New York Herald Tribune

  • “A rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish…It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.”

    New York Times

  • “An exquisitely written and thoroughly engrossing work…The author’s knowledge and skill are so impressive that they whet the appetite for more…An esthetically rewarding experience. No one should forgo the opportunity.”

    Chicago Tribune

  • “Mrs. Tuchman’s popularity is due to more than her skill with words…She never loses sight of individuals, and she is not afraid to tell a story…As in all her books, this one is resplendent with people.”

    New York Times Book Review

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