Tuchman's Research and the Reception of The Guns of August Kayla McKinnon College

One of the deadliest wars in world history, World War I, lasted from July of 1914 until November of 1918. This was one of the first wars to be defined as a global war. This essentially means that all of the world ‘s superpowers were fighting and consequently the whole world was affected. The world’s powers all gathered together and were part of either two groups. The first group was the Allies, which consisted of France, the British Empire, and the Russian empire. The second group was the Central Powers, which consisted of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. In The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman examines the months leading up to the war and the first few months of it. Specifically, she focused her narrative on the military history aspect of World War I. Overall, Tuchman depicts an extraordinary prelude to World War I, such as the decisions of the superpowers involved and world events that affected the war. It has been described by the reviewer Samuel R. Williamson Jr. as “one of the finest works of history…[and of being a part of] the best sellers list for more than forty weeks”.

Tuchman begins her book by illustrating her thought process behind her work and the methods that she used. She starts with an introduction that...