--Barbara W. Tuchman "The Guns of August"

DNF @ 47%. 

Nope. Maybe it is this particular audiobook version, but I'm really not feeling the love for this book.

With The Guns of August, Tuchman wrote this incredibly detailed account of the first month of WWI - and the detail is staggering, so much so that it might even be somewhat overwhelming and that somehow this detail detracts a little from what otherwise looks like a one-sided portrayal. I mean the detail staggering (and the only aspect that kept me reading this far) and includes a lot of detail of the politics, personalities, military strategy, philosophical motivations, etc. of all parties involved.

However, what I cannot get passed is that the well-known (western) figures (Foch, Churchill, etc. - even Haig and French of whose short-comings Monty later wrote without holding back) come out pretty well, whereas the less well known (and for the most part Russian and German) personalities seem to be caricatures. There is a lot of national stereotyping - but maybe this is just exaggerated by the narration of this particular audiobook version which aims to read different characters in actual accents. (Why???)

It is seriously making me dislike the book. 

A very detailed, but nonetheless accessible, account of the first month of World War 1 that focuses on the military history of the main combatants. I was glad that I already had a reasonable understanding of the political situation that led to the outbreak of war as this is not the focus of the book, and I wonder how readers without this knowledge get on with the book. The book's emphasis is on the military: Generals and planners etc. The extent to which you might enjoy this book will probably depend on your interest in the subject. I found the level of detail too much and I realise a more general history of the causes and run-up to the war would have been more appropriate for my needs.

Barbara W. Tuchman has created a readable account, and it's no surprise that it was a best seller when it was first published in 1962, in addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.

While the ultimate outcome of The Great War was not decided in it's first month, the nature of the contest was as Barbara Tuchman so masterfully illustrates in "The Guns of August".

From the outset Tuchman shows that all the belligerents made crucial mistakes that slowly mounted resulting the Allied victory at the Marne then to total stalemate for four bloody years. The first 30 days of combat on the Western Front when the entire continent and possibly the world thought it would be a short war, after over 40 years of continental peace, changed everything and everyone it touched along with those it didn't.

In almost 450 pages of text, Tuchman gives an overview of how the war plans that both sides would use in that first month were developed and then showed the history of what happened when they were applied. She filled each page with dense material but with no frivolous words to get in the way. Although in a few places she must, along with the reader guess at what a particular individual commander was thinking at a particular moment she supports her conclusion with the overall situation he faced at the time. Tuchman quoted individuals in their native tongue, however for some one like myself who didn't now any French or German it meant nothing and I had to figure out what was implied by what Tuchman wrote before and afterwards. If leaving unexplained a quote in foreign language is the worst critique I can assess a book, then I'm literally grabbing at straws.

"The Guns of August" was an instant classic upon publication and for any student of history it is a must read. With the 100-year anniversary of The Great War's beginning fast approaching, now is an excellent time to do so.

I actually listened to the audiobook read by Naomi May, who was a great narrator. Unfortunately as interesting as the book subject was and as good as her narration was, I could not get into this book.

History was never my best subject (that would be math), but I do remember bits and pieces about WWI. Unfortunately the subject doesn't work for an audiobook. There were too many people whose names I didn't already know and I could never remember exactly who they were throughout the book. I may read this as a book one day since that will probably be easier to keep everyone straight.