The Proud Tower

A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914

By: Barbara W. Tuchman

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

"The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it." (Barbara W. Tuchman)

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 in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.

In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist's selectivity, Tuchman brings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the Anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and Stravinsky's music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two Peace Conferences at the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaures was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.

©1996 Barbara W. Tuchman (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration." (The New York Times)

"Tuchman proved in The Guns of August that she could write better military history than most men. In this sequel, she tells her story with cool wit and warm understanding." (Time)

All-Encompassing View of the Period

This book was truly a complete picture of life leading up to the First World War. British politics, the Spanish-American War, the French Dreyfus Affair, German composers, peace conferences, socialists, and anarchists are all covered in excruciating detail, along with several other topics. I knew very little about the period before I started listening and now I feel like I really understand what life was like in that period. To really understand the First World War, you need to understand more than just the Triple Entente/Triple Alliance and the Serbian terrorist attack of 1914. The tension, the romantic attitude towards war, and the arms race all contributed as well, along with many other factors.

The world really was culturally foreign in that time compared to the rest of the 20th century, so understanding it takes covering a wide variety of parts of life in that time period to properly get the feeling of it. This book covers everything you might want to know (and more) and gives a clear picture of what factors created the powder keg that existed in 1914. It sticks with one topic for a section, even if that means referencing events that haven't been explained yet. Don't worry if you hear a reference to something and are frustrated by the lack of explanation - she gets to them later and as the book goes on it fits together better and better.

The narration in this book is perhaps the best I've ever encountered. Nadia May is the only narrator I've ever heard do a huge variety of accents without sounding like she's mocking them (her only weakness is American accents - she is British and her American accents sound mostly British with some American phonemes to my ears). I teach French and her pronunciation in that language is impeccable - I find it very annoying if it is done poorly, and this is the first one I've listened to with French terms where I haven't found the pronunciation lacking. I know very little German, but her German sounds just as high-quality as far as I can tell.

The reason I gave this book four stars instead of five (and I would have liked to do 4.5) was because of the lack of explanation for foreign-language statements at times and for the extent of background knowledge required on the variety of democratic systems existing at the time. While I understand French perfectly, I did notice a lack of translation for some longer phrases and once it reached the section with German, which I only understand in terms of phrasebook-level phrases, it was frustrating to not get the full picture sometimes. Being Canadian, I understand the British system (ours is based on theirs) and the American system and am familiar with the French and German ones to an extent from teaching political science. But it would be confusing if you had no real understanding of those systems, especially the British one, which was talked about in detail but never explained. In fact, none of them were explained, just referenced.

The other small issue was that the sections on British politics were so full of a huge number of characters that they were hard to follow, even when you understand their political system. Dozens of ministers, opposition leaders, union leaders, lords, aristocrats, and influential figures come and go and it requires some concentration to keep track of who's who. I listen to audiobooks in the car, and splitting up the British sections meant that it always took me a minute to remember which party Lord Salisbury belonged to and what the heck he'd been doing when I paused it that morning.

In general, one of the most enlightening and educational works of non-fiction I've ever read.

Tuchman's great, but this book isn't for beginners

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Great book if you already have some basic knowledge of the era. Terrible book if you don't already know a basic outline of Europe of the era.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Proud Tower?

Hardly a 'moment' - but the (long) description of the changes in music and theater were particularly informative and new information.

Have you listened to any of Nadia May’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Handled different accents, persons, voices, exceptionally well.

The World Before The Great War

I bought Tuchman’s well known book The Guns of August without realizing The Proud Tower really should be read first. For those of us who aren’t familiar with the years before WWI began, this book sets TGOA up beautifully. Tuchman’s writing is just my style: witty, somewhat informal, articulate. Wanda McCaddon’s narration was wonderful.
The only thing I would change would be to eliminate some of the many details regarding politicians. Oh, an occasional summation would’ve been nice, too. In a book this long it’s easy to lose track. All in all, a great book.

Not bad

I enjoyed this book but I found MacMillan’s The War That Ended Peace to be a much more complete preparatory work towards studying WW1. They are different books in that MacMillan’s is a more comprehensive narrative of the people & events leading up to the war whereas this book is more a deep dive into a few selected cultural scenes to give a broader look at the milieu prior to the war. I’m glad I read this one second.

Excellent book

Comprehensive; well-written; well-performed; engaging. Reader has a good command of multiple languages which enhances the reading.