Barbara W. Tuchman

En agosto de 1914, la historia de la humanidad cambió su curso. Después de un largo período de engañosa calma, ese mes de verano tronaron los cañones en Europa y empezó la Gran Guerra. Con el estallido del conflicto, ya no hubo vuelta atras: se abrio un abismo entre un mundo que moria y otro que marcaria el devenir del convulso siglo XX.Gracias a una increible labor de investigacion y una asombrosa capacidad narrativa, Barbara W. Tuchman alumbro el mejor libro sobre la Primera Guerra Mundial y uno de los Pulitzer de no ficcion mas renombrados, indispensable para entender el mundo que se abrio hace 100 años con el final del conflicto.

War pressed against every frontier. Suddenly dismayed, governments struggled and twisted to fend it off. it was no use.... Barbara Tuchmans universally acclaimed, Pulitzer prize- winning account of how the first thirty days of battle determined the co

Los veinticinco años que precedieron al estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial han pasado a la historia bajo el nombre de Belle Époque, una expresión amable y superficial que poco dice de los personajes y acontecimientos que provocaron el estallido de un conflicto que dividio aquella epoca de la nuestra, pero que, en cambio, describe perfectamente el espiritu de aquellos tiempos en los que, al compas de los valses de Strauss, se produjo el escandalo del proceso a Alfred Dreyfus y broto el descontento obrero, a la vez que se multiplicaban las brillantes fiestas del naciente ballet ruso.En La torre del orgullo, Barbara W. Tuchman da vida a un conjunto de figuras y acontecimientos de una epoca mucho menos bella de lo que muchos creen, marcada por profundos contrastes, en la que una Europa convulsa convivia con otra adormecida, como ajena a la gran hecatombe que se avecinaba, la Gran Guerra de 1914-1918, que desbarato creencias, cambio ideas y, sobre todo, dejo heridas incurables en el espiritu.

La historiadora que dio un nuevo rumbo a la manera de contar la historia, y supo llegar al gran público con la narración de la Peste Negra del siglo XIV (en Un espejo lejano) o de la Primera Guerra Mundial (en El telegrama Zimmermann o Los cañones de agosto), escribio tambien un libro programatico, Como se escribe la historia. El libro es una suerte de manual que contiene las claves para entender la escritura de la historia: la diferencia entre historia (verdad) y poesia (invencion), el recurso a las fuentes primarias, el contraste de la informacion, la seleccion de los materiales, la investigacion como motor de la historia, el material inedito y, sobre todo, la narracion como alma de la historia. Es tambien una autobiografia intelectual de una mujer que nos enseña el compromiso del historiador consigo mismo, con su materia y con sus lectores; y todo ello a traves de un panorama general de los acontecimientos decisivos que jalonan el siglo XX, desde la Primera Guerra Mundial hasta el final de la Guerra Fria.

Los veinticinco años que precedieron al estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial han pasado a la historia bajo el nombre de Belle Époque, una expresión amable y superficial que poco dice de los personajes y acontecimientos que provocaron el estallido de un conflicto que dividio aquella epoca de la nuestra, pero que, en cambio, describe perfectamente el espiritu de aquellos tiempos en los que, al compas de los valses de Strauss, se produjo el escandalo del proceso a Alfred Dreyfus y broto el descontento obrero, a la vez que se multiplicaban las brillantes fiestas del naciente ballet ruso. En La torre del orgullo, Barbara W. Tuchman da vida a un conjunto de figuras y acontecimientos de una epoca mucho menos bella de lo que muchos creen, marcada por profundos contrastes, en la que una Europa convulsa convivia con otra adormecida, como ajena a la gran hecatombe que se avecinaba, la Gran Guerra de 1914-1918, que desbarato creencias, cambio ideas y, sobre todo, dejo heridas incurables en el espiritu. Tuchman posee un deslumbrante dominio de las artes narrativas, del ritmo y de la colorida construccion de escenas. Newsweek Una rara combinacion de impecable academicismo y lustre literario Es imposible leer este libro y no sentir placer y admiracion. The New York Times

Cuando terminó el mes de julio de 1914, Europa vivía aún inmersa en la engañosa placidez de la belle époque, instalada en la dilatada continuación de casi tres lustros de un siglo XIX, generoso y fructifero, que no acababa de pasar. Treinta y un dias despues habia comenzado el siglo XX, y de la belle epoque no quedaba mas que un monton de ruinas humeantes: habian tronado los cañones de agosto. A partir de un impresionante caudal de informacion historica, Barbara W. Tuchman nos presenta en este libro clasico el panorama dramatico, multicolor, cargado de tensiones psicologicas, abrumador por su incertidumbre, desconcertante por su rapidez, de aquel mes de agosto de 1914 que cambio la faz del mundo. Los hechos que se sucedieron sobre el complicado mosaico de Europa y los personajes que en ellos intervinieron reviven aqui con asombrosa fidelidad, con autentico calor humano. Las pequeñas miserias, las virtudes, el genio, los rasgos mas personales e incluso los defectos fisicos de las figuras que entonces tuvieron en sus manos el destino de millones de seres, saltan ante nuestros ojos con expresivo vigor.

Los veinticinco años que precedieron al estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial han pasado a la historia bajo el nombre de belle époque, una expresión amable y superficial que poco dice de los personajes y acontecimientos que provocaron el estallido de un conflicto que dividio aquella epoca de la nuestra. Este libro ofrece un retrato incomparable de aquellos años en que, al compas de los valses de Strauss, se produce el escandalo del proceso Dreyfuss y el descontento obrero brota al tiempo que lo hacen las brillantes fiestas del naciente ballet ruso.

Barbara Tuchmans The Guns of August is a spellbinding history of the fateful first month when Britain went to war.War pressed against every frontier. Suddenly dismayed, governments struggled and twisted to fend it off. It was no use . . .Barbara Tuchmans universally acclaimed, Pulitzer prize-winning account of how the first thirty days of battle determined the course of the First World War is to this day revered as the classic account of the conflicts opening. From the precipitous plunge into war and the brutal and bloody battles of August 1914, Tuchman shows how events were propelled by a horrific logic which swept all sides up in its unstoppable momentum.Dazzling Max HastingsMagnificentGuardianFascinating, splendid, glittering. One of the finest works of historyNew York TimesA brilliant achievementSunday Telegraph

Barbara W. Tuchman won her second Pulitzer Prize for this nonfiction masterpiecean authoritative work of history that recounts the birth of modern China through the eyes of one extraordinary American. General Joseph W. Stilwell was a man who loved China deeply and knew its people as few Americans ever have. Barbara W. Tuchmans groundbreaking narrative follows Stilwell from the time he arrived in China during the Revolution of 1911, through his tours of duty in Peking and Tientsin in the 1920s and 30s, to his return as theater commander in World War II, when the Nationalist government faced attack from both Japanese invaders and Communist insurgents. Peopled by warlords, ambassadors, and missionaries, this classic biography of the cantankerous but level-headed Vinegar Joe sparkles with Tuchmans genius for animating the people who shaped history. Praise for Stilwell and the American Experience in China Tuchmans best book . . . so large in scope, so crammed with information, so clear in exposition, so assured in tone that one is tempted to say it is not a book but an education.The New Yorker The most interesting and informative book on U.S.China relations . . . a brilliant, lucid and authentic account.The Nation A fantastic and complex story finely told.The New York Times Book Review

A marvelous history* of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years War, by the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Guns of August *Lawrence Wright, author of The End of October, in The Wall Street Journal The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chaos and spiritual agony. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knightin all his valor and furious follies, a terrible worm in an iron cocoon. Praise for A Distant Mirror Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. . . . No one has ever done this better.The New York Review of Books A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer.The Wall Street Journal Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition.CommentaryNOTE: This edition does not include color images.

Barbara W. Tuchman, the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of the classic The Guns of August, turns her sights homeward with this brilliant, insightful narrative of the Revolutionary War. In The First Salute, one of Americas consummate historians crafts a rigorously original view of the American Revolution. Barbara W. Tuchman places the Revolution in the context of the centuries-long conflicts between England and both France and Holland, demonstrating how the aid to the American colonies of both these nations made the triumph of independence possible. She sheds new light on the key role played by the contending navies, paints a magnificent portrait of George Washington, and recounts in riveting detail the decisive campaign of the war at Yorktown. By turns lyrical and gripping, The First Salute is an exhilarating account of the birth of a nation. Praise for The First Salute Nothing in a novel could be more thrilling than the moment in this glorious history when French soldiers arrive [to] see a tall, familiar figure: George Washington. . . . It is only part of Tuchmans genius that she can reconstitute such scenes with so much precision and passion.People Tuchman writes narrative history in the great tradition. . . . A persuasive book, which brings us entertaining pictures, scenes and characters.Chicago Tribune [A] tightly woven narrative, ingeniously structured.The Christian Science Monitor

A journalistic tour de force, this wide-ranging collection by the author of the Pulitzer Prizewinning biography Stilwell and the American Experience in China is a classic in its own right. During the summer of 1972a few short months after Nixons legendary visit to Chinamaster historian Barbara W. Tuchman made her own trip to that country, spending six weeks in eleven cities and a variety of rural settlements. The resulting reportage was one of the first evenhanded portrayals of Chinese culture that Americans had ever read. Tuchmans observations capture the people as they lived, from workers in the city and provincial party bosses to farmers, scientists, and educators. She demonstrates the breadth and scope of her expertise in discussing the alleviation of famine, misery, and exploitation; the distortion of cultural and historical inheritances into ubiquitous slogans; news media, schools, housing, and transportation; and Chairman Maos techniques for reasserting the Revolution. This edition also includes Tuchmans fascinating (The New York Review of Books) essay, If Mao Had Come to Washington in 1945a tantalizing piece of speculation on a proposed meeting between Mao and Roosevelt that would have changed the course of postwar history. Shrewdly observed . . . Tuchman enters another plea for coolness, intelligence and rationality in American Asian policies. One can hardly disagree.The New York Times Book Review

From Barbara W. Tuchman, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Guns of August, comes history through a wide-angle lens: a fascinating chronicle of Britains long relationship with Palestine and the Middle East, from the ancient world to the twentieth century. Historically, the British were drawn to the Holy Land for two major reasons: first, to translate the Bible into English and, later, to control the road to India and access to the oil of the Middle East. With the lucidity and vividness that characterize all her work, Barbara W. Tuchman follows these twin spiritual and imperial motivesthe Bible and the swordto their seemingly inevitable endpoint, when Britain conquered Palestine at the conclusion of World War I. At that moment, in a gesture of significance and solemnity, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 established a British-sponsored mandate for a national home for the Jewish people. Throughout this characteristically vivid account, Tuchman demonstrates that the seeds of conflict were planted in the Middle East long before the official founding of the modern state of Israel. Praise for Bible and Sword Tuchman is a wise and witty writer, a shrewd observer with a lively command of high drama.The Philadelphia Inquirer In her metier as a narrative popular historical writer, Barbara Tuchman is supreme.Chicago Sun-Times

Celebrated for bringing a personal touch to history in her Pulitzer Prizewinning epic The Guns of August and other classic books, Barbara W. Tuchman reflects on world events and the historians craft in these perceptive, essential essays. From thoughtful pieces on the historians role to striking insights into Americas past and present to trenchant observations on the international scene, Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. Spanning more than four decades of writing in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Harpers, The Nation, and The Saturday Evening Post, Tuchman weighs in on a range of eclectic topics, from Israel and Mao Tse-tung to a Freudian reading of Woodrow Wilson. This is a splendid body of work, the story of a lifetime spent practicing history. Praise for Practicing History Persuades and enthralls . . . I can think of no better primer for the nonexpert who wishes to learn history.Chicago Sun-Times Provocative, consistent, and beautifully readable, an event not to be missed by history buffs.Baltimore Sun A delight to read.The New York Times Book Review

La obra clásica de la autora y Premio Pulitzer Barbara W. Tuchman sobre la Independencia americana en su 250 aniversario.En esta obra inédita en español, la historiadora de referencia Barbara W. Tuchman narra el nacimiento de los Estados Unidos a partir de un gesto simbolico y decisivo: la primera salva de honor que una potencia extranjera dirigio a la bandera estadounidense. El episodio, ocurrido en la isla de San Eustaquio en 1776, sirve como punto de partida para un amplio fresco historico que abarca la Guerra de Independencia de Estados Unidos, el papel de Holanda, Francia e Inglaterra, y la compleja red de intereses politicos, comerciales y maritimos que definieron el equilibrio mundial del siglo XVIII.

Un espejo lejano es, sin duda, la obra maestra de Barbara W. Tuchman quien nos ofrece aquí, con gran habilidad expositiva y un conocimiento sólido de la época, un retrato vívido de la Europa Occidental en el siglo XIV. La centuria de la Peste Negra y la Guerra de los Cien Años, pero tambien el punto de arranque de la sociedad occidental moderna, de Petrarca y Chaucer, de Froissart y Wyclif. Tomando como hilo narrativo la v ida del noble Enguerrand VII de Coucy (1340-1397), el mas experto y diestro de todos los caballeros de Francia, y gracias a sus admirables dotes de sintesis y de caracterizacion, Tuchman no suministra una imagen elocuente de los dramaticos avatares del siglo XIV, una mala epoca para la humanidad segun el historiador Simonde de Sismondi, un momento tremendamente violento, sangriento y devastador.Este libro anhela abrir caminos y dejar pistas para navegantes que quieran cartografiar la disidencia. Señales que indiquen por donde seguir, para distinguir la desobediencia, la critica constructiva, la satira inteligente y la lucidez mental en tiempos de confusion y pensamiento unico.