Thursday, May 16, 2013

Throwback Thursday - Barbara Tuchman



I have always been a history buff. When I was 7 or 8 I was reading biographies of George Washington and Ben Franklin and histories of the American Civil War and the War for Independence (juvenile versions, of course!).

I got all my books from the library and almost from the start I would notice the massive tomes written by Barbara Tuchman on a shelf for "big people".

The first Tuchman I read was The Guns of August. Up to that time I had read books about World War I but they had always focused on the military campaigns. Tuchman's work had a completely different point of view. It was reading that book that made me think in an entirely different way about history. You might say my study of history matured with that experience.

Since then I've read several other Tuchman books - The First Salute, A Distant Mirror, and The Proud Tower. All excellent reads, though they are thick and meaty.

What book have you written which caused your thought process to mature?

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