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Guns Of August Book Critique

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Sarah Coleman March 9, 2017 Period 5 Western Civilization 12 The Guns of August Book Critique The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman, is about the start of World War I. It starts out talking about how King Edward VII strengthened the nations during his time alive. Along with King Edward strengthening the nations, Lord Palmerston, a Foreign Minister for England, was able to get a few countries to sign a treaty. “The treaty was signed in 1839 by England, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria” (Tuchman 18). After the treaty was signed, France and Russia formed an alliance so that if one were attacked, the other would help in the battle. Germany knew about this and formed a plan to defeat France before Russia could get there to help. When France …show more content…

A few times, I had to re-read sections because I did not understand what was going on. Aso, Tuchman used the word “he” after mentioning a few different male names, which also lead to me being confused. Tuchman used a few words that were hard to figure out the definition based on context clues. To go along with a few words that were difficult when it came to figuring out what they meant, there were a few words that were in another language. Sometimes when these words came up, the translation would be the next word, or group of words, in the sentence. Other times, there was no translation, which made understanding what was being said even harder. When this happened, it was normally either German or French …show more content…

Tuchman was born on January 30, 1912. She was lucky enough to have a few relatives, a grandfather and an uncle, who worked for the government. Ever since Mrs. Tuchman was young, she enjoyed history and politics. After she graduated high school, she went on to Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. Tuchman got a job out of college, but later moved onto a job for a magazine where she covered stories that had to deal with politics and cultural events. This increased the qualifications she had when it came to writing the book. Margaret MacMillan really enjoyed this book because of how Barbara Tuchman wrote it. MacMillan stated “Throughout the book you are aware of her ability to bring the past to life, in part using what she called the corroborative detail” (MacMillan). The way MacMillan talked about the book, I was able to tell she really liked it. “It is a long book, but I was gripped from her wonderful first sentence” (MacMillan). Other experts also enjoyed The Guns of August. The back of the book has different, positive, remarks about the book. Also, the book was so good that it received the Pulitzer

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