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The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World before the War, 1890–1914 Audiobook
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(3.83) - 12 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The fateful quarter century leading up to World War I was a time when the world of privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of protest was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.”
The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change to that point in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.
Barbara Tuchman brings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy; the anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; two peace conferences in the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of socialism, epitomized by the death of heroic Jean Jaurès on the night the war began and an epoch ended.
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"Tuchman debunks a consensus in beliefs after WWI idealizing life before the war by reframing snapshots of conflicts in beliefs before WWI still afflicting life after the war: "A phenomenon of such extended malignance as the Great War does not come out of a Golden Age." "
— Ryan (5 out of 5 stars)
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“Blackstone’s inspired pairing of narrator [Wanda McCaddon] with the work of Barbara Tuchman introduces a new generation to the pleasures of one of the twentieth century’s most popular and esteemed historians.”
— Audiofile -
“A stunning command of the storyteller’s arts of swift pacing, tense exposition, and colorful scene construction.”
— Newsweek -
“Mrs. Tuchman paints the scene for us with a masterly brush, a scene glittering and brilliant, sumptuous and outrageous.”
— New York Herald Tribune -
“A rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish…It would be impossible to read The Proud Tower without pleasure and admiration.”
— New York Times -
“An exquisitely written and thoroughly engrossing work…The author’s knowledge and skill are so impressive that they whet the appetite for more…An esthetically rewarding experience. No one should forgo the opportunity.”
— Chicago Tribune -
“Mrs. Tuchman’s popularity is due to more than her skill with words…She never loses sight of individuals, and she is not afraid to tell a story…As in all her books, this one is resplendent with people.”
— New York Times Book Review
Awards
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
The Proud Tower Listener Reviews
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" Another fascinating history by Barbara Tuchman. This books discusses the political situation of the major powers in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. It basically sets the stage for "The Guns of August." Wish I had read it first. "
— Nancy, 5/17/2011 -
" I read this as research for my novel, My Phantom: The Memoir of Christine Daaé. A bit past the time of my novel but still very useful in understanding 19th century European society and, of course, Tuchman is ALWAYS topnotch. "
— Elizabeth, 5/5/2011 -
" For U.S. History 2. Worst read of my life. Review coming. "
— Realteenreviews, 3/27/2011 -
" She really makes history come alive for this non-historian. "
— Bill, 1/23/2011 -
" A terrific history of the last 30 years or so of the 19th century, a time I knew very little about. And the writing is spectacular, and consistently enervating even when the subject matter turns slow and complicated. "
— Thomas, 8/2/2010
About Barbara W. Tuchman
Barbara W. Tuchman (1912–1989) was a self-trained historian and author who achieved prominence with The Zimmerman Telegram and international fame with The Guns of August, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1963. She received her BA degree from Radcliffe College in 1933 and worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Pacific Relations in New York and Tokyo from 1934 to 1935. She then began working as a journalist and contributed to publications including The Nation, for which she covered the Spanish Civil War as a foreign correspondent in 1937. Her other books, include The Proud Tower, A Distant Mirror, Practicing History, The March of Folly, The First Salute, and Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-45, also awarded the Pulitzer Prize. In 1980 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her to deliver the Jefferson Lecture, the US government’s highest honor for intellectual achievement in the humanities.
About Wanda McCaddon
Wanda McCaddon (d. 2023) narrated well over six hundred titles for major audiobook publishers, sometimes with the pseudonym Nadia May or Donada Peters. She earned the prestigious Audio Award for best narration and numerous Earphones Awards. She was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine.