How Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August influenced decision making during the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Library of America
Reader's Almanac
March 19, 2011


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Tuchman is among the best historians, and one of the best writers, to have lived in the 20th century. She was, I believe, a far better candidate for a Nobel Literature Prize than were almost any of the winners between 1970 and 1990, with the possible exceptions of Singer and Bellow.

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Well, amazingly, for once Ted and I agree on something.

Ted overstates Tuchman's importance as a historian (there are many more important and influential), but she is good -- and important.

I prefer The Proud Tower to the Guns of August -- it details the inexorable march of an out-moded, imbecilic ruling class on the road to the ruin both of themselves and everybody else -- AMERICANS TAKE NOTICE!!