Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

Looks at the history of society and culture in the years leading up to World War I.

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

The Proud Tower

a portrait of the world before the war, 1890-1914

The proud tower

very useful but full of details that sometimes made me confused.

Shidehdeishidi

Lisa Miller

The detail was really good but halfway through I began to notice a lack of structure. I have since found out that this was originally a series of essays which explains a lot. I would recommend reading the chapters that interest you and not worrying about the rest.

Jeni Enjaian

This book was absolutely fascinating. For one thing, the narrator is fantastic. She's my new favorite female narrator probably because her voice sounds like a combination of the actress that played Harriet Smith on Doctor Who (and Isobel Crawley on Downton Abbey) and Julie Andrews.
I also really liked the approach that Barbara Tuchman took to studying this time period. Instead of focusing on the major world event, World War I, she analyzed the various social and political influences that shaped the era immediately preceding the war. Her entire narrative pointed towards build up to war. She laid out that objective at the beginning of the book and made her argument quite convincingly.
I highly recommend this book.

The Proud Tower A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914

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