The Guns of August

By: Barbara W. Tuchman

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

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 19th to 20th 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.

©1990 Dr. Lester Tuchman (P)2005 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"More dramatic than fiction...a magnificent narrative - beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced...The product of painstaking and sophisticated research." (Chicago Tribune)

LEM

Excellent chronology of terrible greed and horrible mistakes. Author is wonderful historian capturing the horrors of this war.

Limited and dated

I was very disappointed by this book. I expected a book about the start of WW1, but this book only covers the British perspective and only those parts of other nations history that are absolutely vital for the British narrative to make sense. If this book is the only book about WW1 you ever read you might not even know there ever was a polity called the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This book is only interested in the Western Front and neglects every other front, excluding the battle at Tannenberg, which is only included due to its impact on the Western Front. The voyage of Goeben and Breslau is included due to their relevance to the British and the author's personal interest.

The best value in this book is in presenting a portrait of the mental landscape that committed suicide in 1914. There may be some value in the portrayal of the key individuals, but I am unqualified to offer an opinion about the accuracy of their portrayal.

The book clearly suffers from the time at which it was written, since the concept of a human being who is also German seems like an oxymoron to the author. The book suggests an outcome other than stalemate was possible in France in 1914, which seems improbable to me. This is probably due to the book predating the popular appreciation of logistics as an important factor in the outcomes of wars.

Get this book if you are interested in the people, sentiments and world view that produced the First World War. Read some other book first, if you are looking for information about what happened in August 1914.

Truly a Blockbuster of the WWI beginning

The performance by Wanda McCaddon is excellent for the most part - I don’t like ‘false accents’ when they are unnecessary - but she is a spot-on enunciator of words, and the clarity is excellent. Most of all, even after all the years of knowing how the war got started, it is fascinating to hear it recounted in detail. Even more, it confirms to me that Germany could have and should have prevented this debacle for all of Europe. In terms I am familiar with, they “were loaded for bear” and looking for an excuse. Their behaviour in Belgium tells the true tale of what their militarist tradition had led them to be - sadists, fascists, and terrorists of the worst kind.

Amazing book

Interesting, well-written, and laced with dry humor.

A Classic

I couldn't listen to this when I first downloaded it. Did not appreciate the narration.
But after a couple of years I gave it another try and found it gripping. I became accustomed
to the narration. The timing and pace of it was perfect. I now understand
why the Guns of August is considered a classic.

Not ideal for listening

The first section is good but when the fighting breaks out I found it difficult to follow. I believe the author says her purpose was to cover the causes of the war up to the establishment of the stalemate in 1914. Analysis of the European powers in the decades between 1870 and the war is interesting. The depiction of the nations tumbling into war due to alliances and mobilization schedules in the summer of 1914 is rightly considered the highlight of the book. Unfortunately when the battles begin the analysis ends, and much detail is expended on the first couple months of the war. Names of various commanders and acronyms for plans and headquarters, troop movements without maps. If this was in service of a theory for how the military actions of the first few months led to stalemate, and that it could have gone another way, all this would be worth the effort. But the battles do not seem pivotal. Stalemate seems to be fated. Recommended as a library book, but not a good use of a credit.

Audio “ducks” out as if you’re receiving a text

My grandpa has read over 50 books about the World Wars and highly recommended this one. Unfortunately the audio recording here is a challenge, I’m not a fan of her voice, it feels out of sync with the content, also, the audio sucks out and you miss a word or two once or twice a minute. That makes this unlistenable for me and I’m returning the book.

Performance too much

Story was alright, but I felt I got lost in the narrator’s “squawking.” When it came time to read someone’s journal or report, her accent during her most notably performance, was overwhelming. I know this is her job to perform, but to me (my review, not your) it was over-acted and lost its purpose.

Another Title Killed by Bad Narration

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the title, but not in audio format.

How could the performance have been better?

I had to listen to the book at half speed to understand the narrator. Her shrill voice always felt like it was stabbing into my ears.

Excellent

This book is about the first months of the war and a description of the challenges faced by both sides in those early days. I would place the book half way between a text-book and a novel. If you read a lot of history books, this is one of the best.