The Guns of August Barbara Tuchman

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The Guns of AugustBarbara Tuchman

• Morgan Barker
• Hannah Fraser
• Emily Wolfe

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(No Transcript)
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About Barbara Tuchman

• January 30, 1912- February 6, 1989
• American historian and author
• Focused on producing popular history
• Covered diverse topics from the 14th century to
  WWI
• The Guns of August is her most popular work
• She is a particularly notable female historian

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The Feminine Approach to History

• The Guns of August is a very engaging account of
  history
• Tuchman presents history in a narrative format
  that achieves an oral feel
• It focuses less on dates and given facts and more
  on the mood and tension that surrounded WWI

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The Feminine Approach to History (continued)

• Tuchman draws attention to details which carry
  her reader into the past, the plumes on the hats
  and ever so subtle moments of tension tell the
  real story.
• Tuchman makes historical figures real people.
  This lack of distance makes her work more like a
  novel than a historical account this is the
  reason behind her popular appeal.
• The Guns of August is a Pulitzer Prize winner.

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Quotes Supporting the Feminist Approach

• The flashing, inconstant, always freshly
  inspired Kaiser had a different goal every hour,
  and practiced diplomacy as an exercise in
  perpetual motion.
• Beautiful, hysterical, and morbidly suspicious,
  she the czarina hated everyone but her
  immediate family and a series of fanatic or
  lunatic charlatans who offered comfort to her
  desperate soul. The Czar, neither well endowed
  mentally nor very well educated, was, in the
  Kaiser's opinion, only fit to live in a country
  house and grow turnips.

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Tuchmans Perspective

• Tuchmans perspective is mainly intentionalist
• This is shown by the way she tells the background
  and the mood of all the people in the funeral
  procession line
• This perspective gives the book more of a
  story-telling feel as stories concentrate on the
  people that were present
• Her perspective is limited, however, because of
  the novel-like style that does not give in full
  detail the events that were occurring

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Quotes Supporting Perspective

• The first chapter explains the friendships and
  relationships between the European monarchies,
  showing her stress on individual contributions.
• After them came five heirs apparent, forty more
  imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens four
  dowager and three regnant and a scattering of
  special ambassadors from uncrowned countries.
  Together they represented seventy nations in the
  greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever
  gathered in on place.