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Customer Review
- Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2020Most of my favorite books are not written like this one. To be honest, they’re much easier to read and they are not on boring topics like military history or politics. But this book, and Barbara Tuchman, are an exception. It is very likely that you will have to get used to her prose/diction/writing style. But be encouraged by the fact that you are “reading up,” and your comprehension and concentration will be all the better for it. Also, don’t listen to all the armchair historians in the reviews complaining that she doesn’t cover the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. She explains why she doesn’t ON THE FIRST PAGE. They also complain that she is writing anti-German propaganda and has cherry picked a story out of a much bigger picture. What they’re really mad about is that their entire little history club couldn’t publish a single page on WWI that anyone would want to read. Of course she is only using a little bit to tell a story...she wasn’t going to write a 4,000 page book that no one wants to read. What makes this book so exceptional is that you can and really MUST re-read it. I read the first few chapters a few times, then listened to it on audio while I read along, then started re-reading it again a couple months later! It only gets better, I promise. It took me so long to really grasp it because I’m not familiar at all with any of the places or people involved and I’m a slow learner. But this book is so incredible because, in a lot of ways, you’re reading about the end of the Old World. I know, I know, the Old World ended during the Crusades/Black Death/Reformation/Renaissance/1776/etc....but so many of the old WAYS of things in Europe came to a gory, catastrophic end during WWI, and needless to say, WWII. Of course, war and politics are WAY too hyped, as our way of life is mostly changed by inventors, business, discoveries, doctors, etc. But when you’re reading this book, it’s incredible to realize that never before in history had a war like this taken place, and you’re getting the day by day run down of its first month of events, with little character-backgrounds in between.
