Word: tuchman
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...point out that in your Feb. 9 review of Historian Barbara Tuchman's new book, The Guns of August, an inaccurate statement is made: "General Erich Ludendorff routed the Russians at Tannenberg before his reinforcements arrived." For some years, I have been teaching my classes that it was General Paul von Hindenburg who fulfilled the dream of his life in leading an army against an enemy in East Prussia, an area he knew as well as his own estate. With Ludendorff as his chief of staff, Hindenburg proceeded to set the trap for the advancing Russian army...
...Historian Tuchman argues that as the commander of the forces that routed the Russians at Tannenberg, Hindenburg became the hero of the nation, lauded all out of proportion to his real role in the battle. It was actually his chief of staff, Ludendorff, who personally directed and deployed the troops. Hindenburg fully approved of Ludendorff's strategies. The two worked closely together throughout World War I. When Hindenburg was made a field marshal he was nicknamed "Marshal Was-sagst-du" because whenever he was asked an opinion, he would turn to Ludendorff and query, "Was sagst du?" (What...
...Tuchman. The fateful first month of World War I as a drama in which every actor had rehearsed his part for years and yet everything turned into a shambles...
...Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman. A detailed and dramatic account of the fateful first month of World War I; a set piece every actor in it had rehearsed for years and managed to turn into a shambles nevertheless...
What Barbara Tuchman does accomplish is to knit all the personalities and plans of the opening battles of World War I into a colorful, fact-filled narrative. "The Battle of the Marne was one of the decisive battles of the world," she writes, "not because it determined that Germany would ultimately lose or the Allies ultimately win the war, but because it determined that the war would go on. Afterward there was no turning back. The nations were caught in a trap, a trap made during the first thirty days out of battles that failed to be decisive...