The Proud Tower : A Portrait Of The World Before The War, 1890-1914 (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
Barbara Tuchman is a widely respected historian, and I have always assumed I'd get around to reading all her books some day (I read two of her books in my pre- Goodreads.com days). I had not previously read The Proud Tower probably because the era prior to World War I is of limited interest to me. Things changed recently when Ken Follett came out with his book, Fall of Giants, and a book group I belong to decided to read, Edith Wharton's book The Age of Innocence. These are both fictional stories set in the late 19th and/or early 20th centuries. What better way to prepare myself for those books than to read Tuchman's nonfiction account of the era.World War I was so horrible that it causes many to look back on the pre-war era as being a Golden Age. The book's Foreword indicates that, "It did not seem so golden ... in the midst of it." Tuchman offers the following rule based on her research:"all statements of how lovely it was in that era made by persons contemporary with it will be found to have been made after 1914." The Proud Tower is divided into chapters of varied subjects and I've decided to give my impressions of the book by making the following short comments about each chapterChapter 1 "The Patricians (England: 1895-1902)" is about British aristocracy of the era and focuses primarily on Prime Ministers, Salisbury and Balfour. I found this to be a boring chapter which is an indication of my interest in reading descriptions of British politians. They all seemed to convey a haughty confidence that God is an Englishman, and thus it is God's will that the British take on the white man's burden of maintaining a world wide empire.Chapter 2 "The Idea and the Deed (Anarchists: 1890-1914)" is about the terrorist of that era. Anarchists had the theory that organized government was the cause of human suffering. It follows from this belief that if sufficient chaos could be created by acts of violence to cause governments to collapse, people would be then free to live in an egalitarian utopian society. The terror caused to this end by Anarchists of this era are summarized in the following quotation from the book:"...six heads of state were assassinated for its sake in the twenty years before 1914. They were President Carnot of France in 1894, Premier Canovas of Spain in 1897, Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 1898, King Humbert of Italy in 1900, President McKinley of the United States in 1901, and another Premier of Spain, Canalejas, in 1912."Chapter 3 "End of a Dream (United States: 1890-1902)" is the story how USA caught the colonial fever and ventured into their own war of aggression in the Spanish-American War. Americans then emulated the European colonial powers by holding on to The Philippines. Chapter 4 "Give Me Combat" is an account of France 1894-1899. France's story is told largely by telling how the nation was tied up in knots from 1897 to 1899 because of the Dreyfus Affair. Anyone in France during those years who heard the term, "the affair," would have known what it meant. The Dreyfus Affair became a proxy battle for the division between the conservative and liberals of the time.”The Revisionists, who fought for retrial, saw France as the fount of liberty, the country of light, the teacher of reason, the codifier of law, and to them the knowledge that she could have perpetrated a wrong and connived at a miscarriage of justice was insufferable. They fought for Justice. Those on the other side claimed to fight in the name of ‘Patrie’ for the preservation of the Army as the shield and protector of the nation and of the Church as the guide and instructor of its soul.”Chapter 5 "The Steady Drummer" focuses on the peace conferences held at The Hague in 1899 and 1907. The purpose of the conferences was disarmament but the best they could do was agree to very limited rules of war. The participants at the time did not know, unlike the readers of this book, that World War I was coming. In hindsight it's pretty obvious that the the conferences didn't have a chance. There are some incredible quotes from this era, one of which is listed below:"Lord Lansdowne, opposing the Old Age Pensions Bill in the House of Lords, said it would cost as much as a great war and the expense of the South African War was a better investment. ‘A war, terrible as are its consequences, has at any rate the effect of raising the moral fibre of the country …’ “ Chapter 6 titled "Neroism is in the Air" is about Germany 1890-1914 and uses Richard Strauss and his music as a primary focus while also covering others such as Kaiser Wilhem and Friedrich Nietzsche. One item that caught my attention is how Tuchman described "Also sprach Zarathustra," Op. 30 (Eng. Thus Spoke Zarathustra). It's a tone poem composed by Richard Strauss in 1896 inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise of the same name. What I found interesting is that Tuchman was writing in the mid 1960s and thus couldn't do what any writer after 1968 would have done and refer to it as the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey." So how does one describe it when you can't refer to the movie?"Trumpets sounded the opening, swelling into an immense orchestral paean by the whole ensemble which seemed to depict less the sunrise stated in the program notes than the creation of the world. Its magnificence was breathtaking." Chapter 7 titled "Transfer of Power (England: 1902-1911)" tells the story of the beginnings of the Labor Party and the ascendance of the Liberal Party in England. This chapter describes the long tortured path toward passage of the Parliament Bill that limited the veto power of the House of Lords. At the time of its passage some considered it akin to near revolution, but in the end it hardly made a ripple of change.Chapter 8, "The Death of Jaures (The Socialists: 1890-1914)" is about the Socialist and Labor movments of the time. Jean Jaurès who's name is in the chapter title was a French Socialist leader. He was an antimilitarist and was assassinated at the outbreak of World War I by a French nationalist. His death is symbolic of how the socialist cause was swallowed up the World War I. Some Socialists had theorized prior to WWI that future wars would be prevented because of organized labor's international spirit of brotherhood of workers. We all know how wrong that theory turned out to be. The following quotation from the book caught my eye as one of the more astounding comments."While campaigning for McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt said in a private conversation, 'The sentiment now animating a large proportion of our people can only be suppressed as the Commune was suppressed, by taking ten or a dozen of their leaders out, standing them against a wall and shooting them dead. I believe it will come to that. These leaders are plotting a social revolution and the subversion of the American Republic.' "TR was referring to the Socialist Party of America and their presidential candidate, Eugene Debs.______________The following didn't come from this book. However, it's interesting information that I recently read about happenings in this era which I feel compelled to share with those who read my reviews:Aspirin came into being in the late 1890s when Bayer in Germany began distributing it in powder form. One patient who should not have been taking aspirin was young Alexei Nicholaevich Romanov of Russia, who had hemophilia. Aspirin would make the bleeding in this disorder worse, but the imperial doctors likely gave the boy this new wonder drug without knowing. Alexei, son of the last czar, probably improved because the mystic Grigori Rasputin told the boy's mother to stop modern treatments and instead rely on spiritual healing. Rasputin's influence on the Romanov family may have contributed to the uprising against them, making aspirin a possible player in their murder and in the end of czarist Russia.
اول از همه از اسم کتاب شروع کنم. برجِ فرازان ترجمهی خیلی سنگینی برای proud tower هست. من که خودم بدون کسرهی موصوفی و به صورت صفت جمع میخوندمش. اما ترجمه. حتماً یکی از دلایل این ترجمهی روان، تسلط زیاد مترجم بر زبان انگلیسی، و همچنین بر دیگر زبانها از جمله لاتین، هست. البته دارم به این شک میافتم که نکند به خاطر علاقهای که به عزتالله فولادوند پیدا کردهام انقدر ترجمههایش به نظرم عالی میرسه. به هر حال عزتالله فولادوند تحصیلکردهی آمریکا در رشتهی فلسفه است و تسلطش بر زبان چیز عجیبی نیست. اما فقط تسلط بر زبان مبدا نمیتونه ترجمه را روان بکنه و مترجم باید به زبان فارسی هم خیلی مسلط باشه تا بتونه انقدر روان ترجمه بکنه. حالا این که من به خودم اجازه میدم مدح یکی از بزرگترین مترجمان ایران را بکنم زیادی پرروئی میخواد و برای همین این مطلب رو درز میگیرم.و اما ویراستاری. کتاب بیش از آن حدی که قابل قبول باشد اشکالات ویراستاری دارد. متاسفانه در مدت خواندن حواسم نبود که اشکالات ویراستاری کتاب را در جایی یادداشت کنم که الان بتونم چند تا مثال بزنم از اشکالاتش. پس بریم سر بحث بعدی. فقط یادتون باشه که من چاپ نشر سخن را خریدم و نه چاپ نشر ماهی. فکر نمیکنم چاپ نشر ماهی این مشکلات را داشته باشه که البته از قیمت 42000 تومانی اون هم همین انتظار میره.خود کتاب. کتاب یک جورهایی قرار است فضای بیست سی سال پیش از جنگ جهانی اول را به ما نشان بده و بگه که چی شد که کار به جنگ کشید. نویسنده (یا مترجم؟) در ابتدای کتاب میگه که جنگی به عظمت جنگ جهانی اول با آن همه کشته و مجروح و بیخانمان، نمیتونسته از یک فضای گل و بلبل نشأت گرفته باشه، و فقط اون موقعی همه افسوس دوران پیش از جنگ را میخوردن که جنگ شروع شده بود و فقط در مقایسه با جنگ، آن دوران قشنگ به نظر میرسه. فصلهای کتاب در مورد این موارد هستند: در مورد آنارشیستها، اشرافیت انگلستان، رئیس مجلس آمریکا، محاکمهی دریفوس در فرانسه، حال و هوای سروری دنیا در آلمان، از دست رفتن قدرت اشرافیت انگلستان و انتقال قدرت به طبقات پایینتر، و جنگ و دعوای سوسیالیستها با همدیگر و با کشورهایشان و محو شدن ناگهانی حال و هوای جهانوطنی آنها با شروع جنگ. و البته یک فصل هم دربارهی تشکیل دادگاه لاهه حرف میزنه.نکته اینه که در مقایسه با آیزایا برلین - در دو کتابی که من ازش خواندهام: کارل مارکس و ریشههای رومانتیسم - باربارا تاکمن نمیتونه چندان حال و هوا را نشان بده. در هر فصل - که بعضیش عنوان یک کشور را در یک دورهی زمانی دارد، مثلاً انگلستان 1895:1902 - تنها بر روی یک حادثه یا یک فرد یا یک موضوع تمرکز میکند و آن حادثه یا فرد را شرح میدهد. البته موقع شرح آن فرد یا حادثه به گوشه و کنارها هم سر میزند و نمایی از اطراف آن به دست میدهد، با این حال ما حال و هوای کلی را چندان به دست نمیآوریم. مثلا فصل پایان روی: ایالات متحد آمریکا ما فقط به بررسی زندگی تامس رید، رئیس مجلس آمریکا میپردازیم و در کنار او کمی هم به بقیه. این کار گاهی باعث میشه که بعضی سوالات آدم هم بیجواب بمونه.خیلی زیاد شد حرفام. میخواستم در مورد فصلهای مختلف کتاب هم حرف بزنم ولی دیگه بسه.
What do You think about The Proud Tower : A Portrait Of The World Before The War, 1890-1914 (1996)?
Ever wary of the Edwardians, I knew that Barbara Tuchman could enliven this dreary industrial period. And my, did she ever: The story of English nobility, mad anarchists, high-minded Socialists and the throbbing heart of impending war all become glaring signs of the world's most pointless and catastrophic olympiad. One can see the origins of German nationalism, the symptoms of French self-importance (by way of the Dreyfus Affair), and the transformation of America from a philosophical experiment into a land-grabbing behemoth. A congressman's most innocent remark becomes internationally significant under Tuchman's refined lens. "The Proud Tower" does not surpass "A Distant Mirror," but its importance is far more obvious; it becomes apparent how the last decade of the 19th century set the stage for the entire 20th. Tuchman has a pessimistic streak -- there are few admirable characters in her historians, only bumblers and blowhards -- but she shows affection, despite herself, for such characters as Richard Strauss and Monsieur Comerade Jaures. The book's most shocking aspect: The era of its writing, in the early 1960's. Tuchman may have felt skeptical of heroes, but she is quickly becoming one of mine.
—Robertisenberg
This classic about the world prior to the first world war is portrait of Europe and America from about 1890 to 1914. Tuchman present about a half dozen snapshots of different aspects of the era. The chapter opens on upper class life in England during the 1890 and is followed by the flipside of Anarchist movement that assassinated six heads of state at this time. It covers the Dreyfuss Affair, and the Spanish-American war as seen by Imperialists and anti-Imperialists in congress, Their was a failed conference at the Hague for disarmament which went nowhere but highlighted the awareness that any coming war could well be horrendous. Their is a look at the socialist movements of the time which would challenge the old order. So elements of what was lost and harbingers of the future can be found in this era before the world shattering war. It is not the rosy pictured era that nostalgia created after the war but one of real tension and real problems. Tuchman looking back from a vantage point of a half century of cataclysmic war doesn't idealize but presents the era as it was seen at the time but with plenty of foreshadowing of what was to come.
—Peter Mcloughlin
Tuchman's eight long form essays are a must read as an element in understanding the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries that led to 'the Great War'. The writer grasps and transmits concisely the role of socialism and anarchy to the general unrest and global psychosis that would erupt in August 1914 and bring the entirety of the world to the first step in global destruction. An often quoted and referenced historian, Barbara Tuchman draws a political and historical image of the famed Belle Epoque period in the West. While Tuchman wrote more traditional and probably better history in works such as the work August 1914(also published in the U.S. as The Guns of August after Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had his August 1914: The Red Wheel - I was published) his collection is the most readable of her work. Continuing scholarship has perhaps sharpened some of the details in the bio's she presents, the political overtones of assassinations and show trials she chronicles have evolved in a few cases, and there is debate over how out of touch some leaders were and others were not. None of this is serious enough to weaken the overall impact of the work.Also suggested is the aforementioned The Guns of August also by Barbra Tuchman
—CD
