The Guns of August is Barbara Tuchman’s iconic work on the period starting in the first decade of the 20thcentury that led to the outbreak and critical first month of World War I. After August and September 1914 and their inability to outflank one another as they raced to the sea, the combatants settled into what became a war of attrition that was only resolved by America’s entry into the war. While much has been written about the cause of the “Great War”, the lessons on how wars start and are fought bear repetition and re-examination. Moreover, while we don’t currently have a “hot” Cold War, we continue to live in times in which the making and deferral of political decisions as well as missteps in communications by political leaders and other public figures can have chilling consequences. This problem is heightened in the 21st Century as the number of media sources (which includes social media) has increased exponentially when compared with historical experience, but the quality of communicated information has, with notable exception, deteriorated. Our primary goal will be to use Ms. Tuchman’s book and occasionally other sources, to examine her period of focus. Using lessons from the core book and other sources, we will also discuss how channels of communication employed today can affect the development of consequential world events.
Week
1 Foreward, Preface and Author's Note and Chapters 1-3 (pp vii-52 of Ballantine Books edition)
2 Chapters 4-7 (pp 53-99)
3 Chapters 8 and 9 (pp 100-160)
4 Chapters 10 and 11 but not including paragraph beginning "To the outside world...." (pp 161-212)
5 Chapter 11 [beginning "To the outside world..."] - 13 (pp 213-272)
6 Chapter 14 (pp 273-311)
7 Chapters 15 and 16 (pp 312-367)
8 Chapters 17 and 18 (pp 368-405)
9 Chapters 19-21 (pp 406-490)
10 Chapter 22 and Afterword (pp 470-524)
Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August
Christopher Clarke, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War