Picture It!

A soldier's sketchbook : the illustrated First World War diary of R.H. Rabjohn by R.H. Rabjohn/John Wilson

Canada : Tundra Books, [2017]     

112 p. : ill. ; 22 x 24 cm.

I'm always interested in WWI, the war that turned the European violence inward instead of outward and ripped the façade off the elegant civilization of Europe at a cost of the deaths of millions of combatants and many civilians.

This WWI book is a special addition to the literature of that "Great War." It consists of the sketches from the war done by R.H. Rabjohn, a soldier from Canada, who saw combat from April 1917 until the end of the war on November 11, 1918. 

It was Rabjohn's official duties as a soldier-sketch artist that allowed him to carry a sketch book (something that was prohibited to other soldiers). He also kept a diary and the author, John Wilson, has done a fine job of organizing the sketches and diary entries into a logical and easy to follow whole.  Doing drafts and support work at the front meant that Rabjohn was frequently in great danger and witnessed first hand the horrors of trench warfare that marked WWI.  

Given its visual appeal, shortness, and direct narrative, this book would be a great way of introducing World War I to teens and hopefully would interest some in wanting to know more about this nation shattering event - the tragic consequences of which continue into the present.

 

     

A Terrible Beauty

Vincent and Theo: the Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman

New York : Goldwin Books, Henry Holt and Co., 2017.

454 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. 

This book brings up some of the problems I find with the whole YA book marketing enterprise.  This is a superb book - one that anyone with the slightest interest in the visual art of painting should read, and by anyone I mean young person, young adult, middle-aged adult, or senior citizen.  It is a wonderful book that lovingly tells the story of artist Vincent Van Gogh and his slightly younger brother Theo, who devoted himself to supporting and championing the work of Vincent. But it is packaged as a YA nonfiction selection - and has deservedly won awards in that category. It may seem I'm nitpicking, but it really seems wrong to me that this book didn't get equal promotion as an adult nonfiction book - it's that good! Also, as much as I hate to say it, it's length (454 pages) is just going to turn off a lot of younger readers - even those with an interest in art.

With all that said, I can say that I loved this book.  I learned a lot from it (e.g. how Theo correctly pushed Vincent to add more color to his palette which was originally muted and grounded in earth tones). The book really opens up the terrible mental anguish and affliction that Vincent suffered and also does justice to the truly inspiring (and sometimes difficult and contentious) love between these two brothers.  Both Vincent and Theo emerge from this telling as very, very human and also very heroic figures.  One finishes the book with a great appreciation for how doggedly Vincent worked at teaching himself and practicing his art and how unstinting Theo was in supporting him.  Importantly, Heiligman gives credit to Theo's wife Jo, who also (in spite of being married to Theo for only the last year and a half of his short life) ensured that Vincent's work and legacy was championed and preserved.

Another positive feature of this book is that it includes excellent end material: a descriptive list of prominent characters, a timeline, copious notes, and a thorough index.

I'll add in closing that I was surprised at the emotional impact of the book. Heiligman's retelling of Vincent and Theo's deaths (just six months apart) left me teary eyed. This is a wonderful book and it is one that I'll be recommending to young and older readers alike.

Roads of Power

The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
New York : Vintage Books, 2017.
xix, 647 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : colored illustrations ; 24 cm.

This is a well-written enjoyable read that sets out to re-establish the historical roots of civilization further east than is common in the "western" canon.  Instead of placing the thread of history as Greece, Rome, Europe, and US-Europe, Frankopan adjusts the narrative to give prominence that part of the world between the eastern Mediterranean and China/India.

In telling the story he conveys how much vibrant politics, culture and trade was occurring in Central Asia both before Greece and Rome came on the scene and during the so called "Dark Ages" too.  There were some interesting parts of the history that I was not familiar with, especially the in roads into Central Asia made by the Vikings as they brought both pillage and trade down the Volga and trafficked heavily in slaves.

The narrative comes fully into the present with the vital role in recent politics that countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India have played and continue to play and the powerful role that the Silk Roads area has played in the era of oil and gas beginning just before WWII and continuing to this day.

The book is a bit of a doorstop for high school readers, but I would recommend it to students needing source material for reports and to any avid history buffs.

Fiery Brown

A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery by Albert Marrin
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2014]
244 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Like many of the history non-fiction books published with the high school audience in mind, this book has an appealing layout with lots of great photos, reproductions, etc.  It makes for a readable history.  I also like that the length of these non-fiction books is long enough for a substantive treatment of the topic, but not so exhaustive as to be daunting.

I read this book because I really wanted to learn more about John Brown and his passionate fight against slavery in the US and his willingness to die for the cause. 

Marrin does a good job describing the life of Brown and the back drop of slavery - especially the way in which slavers decided that they had to expand slavery in the US to keep their power.  He also illuminates the way in which Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry pushed the coming Civil War even closer.  But I think the biggest weakness is that Marrin tries to highlight the radical and "terrorist" nature of John Brown's actions (for example his execution of unarmed prisoners in Kansas) without fully illuminating the absolute horrors and terrorism of the slave labor system.  Having read The Half Has Never Been Told, I am aware that the cotton-slavery system that evolved after 1820 was an even more vicious, brutal and horrid system of torture/slavery that what already existed before 1820.  I think it is a good thing that Marrin wants students to really wrestle with the complexities of when or if illegal, violent action is acceptable.  But to do that you have to really be honest about the system that that action was targeting - and I don't think Marrin succeeded in that.

I would still recommend the book since it is a thorough treatment of Brown's life and conveys a lot of the dynamics of the time.     

Reduced to Tears

Tear Gas by Anna Feigenbaum
London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2017.
218 p. 22 cm.

This is a disturbing book and it should be.  It tells the history of how pain and distress inducing poison gas went from the less-than-lethal gas (yet still condemned by decent people) used against soldiers during WWI  to the go-to poison used by police and military forces of governments around the world to squash protests that they deem threatening to their order - no matter how unjust or unpopular.

The really interesting back story is how US marketing in the 1920s eventually triumphed in reshaping the perception of tear gas from a painful and uncivilized poison used against mostly-unarmed people to being considered a non-lethal alternative to more violent repressive tools of the state.  This book does a great job of showing that though tear gas - when used in moderation in an open-air environment - is not generally lethal, it's use by government forces throughout history has been such as to intentionally harm, maim and kill people.  This has been done by firing canisters and grenades directly at protesters (often at close range) and by using it in enclosed situations such as houses, prisons, cars, tunnels and buses.

The author also does a good job of showing how the use of tear gas rises when economic injustice is greater - during depressions, food shortages, violent occupations, etc.  Tear gas has been a crucial tool in unjust governments attacking protesters and destroying movements instead of addressing underlying inequities.  She also does a thorough job of showing how tear gas has been an integral part of the increasing militarization of police forces around the world (and showing how profitable this has been to suppliers).

For anyone interested in the history of this poisonous gas and learning how it has come to be so commonly used by all types of governments, I would highly recommend Feigenbaum's Tear Gas.

 

Battle Cry Is Great History

Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era by James M. McPherson
Oxford [U.K.] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003, c1988.
xix, 909 p. : ill., maps, music ; 24 cm.

If you are looking for a one volume history of the Civil War instead of reading five or six separate Civil War histories, then you can't go wrong with McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom.  It's a masterful handling of the war that ripped the US apart for four extremely bloody years.  Given the quality and clarity of the narrative, I'm not surprised that the book was a huge bestseller and won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for History.

McPherson begins his book with the US-Mexican War and builds a sound case for considering enslavement (and the unyielding defense of slavery's expansion and power) as the ultimate cause and fight of the war.  McPherson also gives great attention to the cultural and political movements involved before, during and immediately after the Civil War.

It's not a short book (about 900 pages), but it is well written and illustrated with interesting photos and a number of very clear maps.

I read this book this summer as a prelude to reading the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.  It was a really helpful preparation for Grant's long work.  I would highly recommend it.

Violent, Unbelievable - That's History

Samurai Rising by Pamela Turner
Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, [2016]
xiii, 236 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm

This book had great reviews in VOYA (and other places, too - like the NYT and SLJ).  I had not yet read it, when student asked if I had anything in history to recommend.  Ah ha! I handed him Samurai Rising, and he brought it back several days later saying it was the best thing he'd read in a while.  There's nothing like a student's glowing review to bump a book up to the top of my "to-read" list.

Things I liked a lot about this book:  It's a history - 1160 to1190 in Japan - that I know almost nothing about.  It's well researched with copious notes.  Finally, it's written to be an adventurous, exciting read.

The book is pretty violent - as were most Samurai battles.  There are lots of scenes of hand-to-hand combat with swords, arrows, daggers and copious amounts of blood and corpses.  Strangely, though the violence does not seem gratuitous, as Sarah Miller notes in the NYT review, "Heads topple, limbs are severed, arrows pierce eyeballs, yet these facts are relayed cleanly and directly."

I also appreciated that the author provides an afterward explaining how she made decisions in recreating  the world of the main hero, Minamoto Yoshitsune, even though much of the historic record is sparse.  It's a great insight for students into thinking historically - and creatively.  Finally, I'd be remiss not to praise the illustrations of Gareth Hinds.  His drawings are bold, skillful, uncluttered and yet convey action, emotion and the stately nature of the story being told (the cover graphic at the top is an excellent example of his art).

I was a little stunned to see one review list this as for readers aged 10 - 14.  That would be a very precocious 10 year old! This book should satisfy any high school reader, and frankly I think a lot of adults (myself included) would enjoy this biography.
  

The 911 That Never Should Have Been

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
New York : Vintage Books, 2007.
540 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I've read a lot about the Middle East, and about 9/11, but The Looming Tower is one of the best books to pull all the narrative threads together into an informative, compelling and stunning read.

There were several things I learned that surprised me.  I didn't realize how central the Egyptian fundamentalist-jihad movement was to al-Qaeda.  I had no idea that Bin Laden's time in Sudan was marked by his arriving a multimillionaire and leaving virtually broke.  I didn't know that when he left Sudan for Afghanistan, he had no idea who the Taliban were and they were cautious about him, too.  Probably the most painful revelations of the book are the several times that the CIA refused to share information with the FBI which almost surely would have lead to the uncovering and thwarting of the 9/11 plot.  There is more to discover in Wright's definitive history.

I would definitely recommend this book to a student with a keen interest in the background of 9/11 or to a student working on a research project about 9/11.  It is a fine book, one which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.      

Fists and Crosses

Saints by Gene Luen Yang
New York : First Second, 2013.
170 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm.  

After reading Boxers, I had to read this companion to it - which tells the same story, but from the point of view of a young Chinese, Christian convert who find herself on the opposite side of the violent Boxer Rebellion as the hero of Boxers.

All that I wrote in my review of Boxers below, applies to this book as well.  It's a great read and has the same captivating mix of history, supernatural, familial and social conflict, etc.

I'd definitely recommend reading Boxers first, it sets the stage well and makes it satisfying when the narrative exactly overlaps in several key scenes.

A Righteous and Harmonious Fist Bump

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
New York : First Second, 2013.  
328 p. : chiefly col. ill. ; 21 cm.

Yang's American Born Chinese continues to circulate well with readers at our high school, and I hope that Boxers will do the same. With both fiction and graphic novels, the challenge of having historical events as the subject is finding the heart and power of that event and translating it to the genre being used.  I think it is a difficult challenge for any author, but especially for author's of young adult readers - where the desire to get lost in a book is a powerful appeal for readers already surrounded by informational text.  But it can be done, and I think Boxers proves it!

One never forgets that the power of Yang's book is the story and the characters involved in it. There is romance, danger, humor, wistfulness, longing, justice and magic propelling the story forward.  The comic artwork is clear, powerful, and interesting to look at.  Not convinced?  Take a look at some sample pages provide by Macmillian Publishers.

I was struck, after reading Boxers, at how cleverly the story made me want to know more about the actual history - and - at how pathetically little I know of Chinese history.  I had heard of the Boxer Rebellion, but knew little about it.  Furthermore, in reading some of the history that preceded it, I came across references to the Taiping Rebellion - a 14 year civil war that killed an estimate 20 million people!   And this is history that I knew nothing about.

So do I recommend this book? Absolutely.  It is a wonderful work of literary and visual art, and for teachers who might want to include it in a history class, there is even an extensive online teacher's guide to accompany the book.

Storm of Horrors

Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger
[translated with an introduction by Michael Hofmann]
New York : Penguin Books, 2016.
xxx, 288 p. ; 22 cm.

A couple of years ago I was reading several books on WWI, and I came across references praising this remarkable memoir of trench warfare by Ernst Jünger. I thought I would get to it sooner, but it's not always easy to find - even though recognized as a classic work of the "Great War." I finally added this new edition to our library and just finished reading it.

It is a stunning work.  As others have pointed out, Jünger makes almost no judgments about the war, but simply presents the events and his participation in them over the course of virtually the entire war.  He is able to offer us an unvarnished look at life in the German trenches on the Western Front.  His passages really convey the unimaginable intensity of massive bombardment and the ever present threat of death or horrific maiming.

And strangely, he doesn't really dwell on the deeper meanings of such violence and horror.  Instead he writes rather matter of factly about his and his comrades actions and situation before, during and after many battles - including the Somme and Passchendaele.

I wouldn't recommend this book to a reader as a first book about WWI, since it provides almost no explanations of the where's, how's and why's of the fighting.  But for a student who has read some about the war and wants something visceral and intense, then this is a book I can highly recommend.

A Clash of Expectations

The Crusades: a Beginner's Guide by Andrew Jotischky
London : Oneworld, 2015.
xi, 180 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm    

I guess it's just really, really hard to write a short and memorable introduction to a subject as sprawling and complex as the Crusades.  It might be like asking someone to write a short introduction to contact between Europeans and American Indians - the first 200 years.  There's just so much time and geography to cover, and so many important figures to include.  I liked reading The Crusades by Jotischky, but after finishing it, I retained the broadest outlines of the history.

Perhaps that is the best a lay reader can hope for.  Jotischky does a fine job of laying out the major events of the Crusades which spanned the period of 1095 to about 1291.  He also provides some of the major forces underlying the Crusades (the complex web of papal, nobility, state and royal power, the role of religious belief, the cultural differences of both allies and enemies, etc.).  It is an interesting period for certain, but I'm afraid it's just too much for one short book.

I would recommend this book to a student who is already interested in the Crusades, or one who is researching the Crusades, but I would hesitate giving it to a student who is just interested in a non-fiction work of history.


    

Music for the Apocalypse

Symphony for the City of the Dead by M.T. Anderson
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2015.
456 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.    

I really loved this book.  If I were writing history for high school students, it's the kind of book I would be really proud of.  Symphony for the City of the Dead sheds light on a major event in history - the 900 day Siege of Leningrad - and does it through a unique lens - that of a world famous composer - Dmitri Shostakovich - who was intimately involved in the event.  M. T. Anderson also is able to handily place the event in the broader historical context of the Russian Revolution, Stalin's Great Terror and the horrors of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII.

There is so much to like about this book.  The reader experiences the heady artistic days of the early Soviet Union, the chilling and murderous days of the Stalinist purges, the horrors of a modern city under siege, and the triumph of art and inspiration amid such loss and violence.

This is a book I will definitely offer to any student looking for good WWII history or nonfiction about classical music, or history of Russia.  I hope it finds an audience. With nice black and white photos, and a clear and passionate style of writing - it should not be too much of a challenge for students, but I fear it might scare some kids off with it's 400 plus pages and their unfamiliarity with the Siege of Leningrad.

I should also mention that for any interested reader, it pairs nicely with David Benioff's wonderful novel, City of Thieves, which is set in Leningrad during the siege.

The book deserves praise and recommendation, and I see that it is on the long list for the National Book Award.

Terrific Fair, Fairly Terrible

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
New York : Vintage Books, 2004, c2003.
1st Vintage Books ed.
xi, 447 p. : ill., maps, music ; 21 cm.

This is a fantastic and haunting book about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Larson's book manages to convey just how incredible the feat of Chicago's hosting the world's fair was (having just over 2 years to organize and build the entire fair venue) - while also telling the story of serial killer Henry H. Holmes and his immense frauds and scams that helped him elude capture for so long.

The book is a wonderful glimpse into the turn of the century world of the US and Chicago, which had been destroyed by fire only a little over twenty years before.

The reader gets to learn so much about the founding architects of Chicago, the landscaping prowess of John Olmsted - creator of NYC's Central Park - the amazing invention of the Ferris Wheel and the massive turnout of visitors to the fair (including a one day attendance total of over 750,000 people!).  Following the story of killer, H.H. Holmes, also gives the reader a feel for the fast and loose business dealings of the day, the ease with which people could assume false identities, and the plodding nature of police investigations at the turn of the century.

I will definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Chicago history, true crime stories, and just an amazing read.

Better Than Fiction (and Worse)

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup
New York, NY : Penguin Books, 2013.
xxxviii, 240 p. : ill ; 20 cm.

When the movie, Twelve Years a Slave, came out about 2 years ago, I knew I would want to read the book.  At the time, I bought a couple of new copies of the book for my library, and I've finally gotten around to reading it - stunning!  I can't say enough about what a fine book this is.

I thought that since this autobiography was written over a hundred and fifty years ago, it might be a bit formal or stiff, but it is wonderfully written.  There are several things that make the story of Northrup's ordeal such a tour de force.  First, the circumstances of his living thirty years a free man, only to be kidnapped and sold into slavery make the story immediate and chilling.  The reader can imagine the experience in a visceral way different from narratives of those born into slavery. Northrup's tale reads like a modern Kafkaesque story of one man's descent into a horrifying alternate universe.  As Fredrick Douglas said of Twelve Years a Slave, "It chills the blood."  

Also, since Northrup was so concerned that he not be accused of fabricating his narrative, he includes specific names and details that make the action of the book terribly real and give the book a cinematic effect.  Steve McQueen, the director of the Oscar winning film of the same name, writes in the Foreword, "The book read like a film script, ready to be shot."

I'm not sure I'll be able to get a lot of students to read Twelve Years a Slave, but I'm going to give it a try.  I'll feel certain telling them it's a book that will blow them away - more than any dystopian fiction novel could!

Wealth Gap Becomes Abyss

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
New York : Schwartz & Wade Books, [2014]
292 p. : ill., geneal. table, map ; 25 cm.

With the current trend of the rapidly widening gaps between the very rich and everyone else in the US and globally, the sad tale of the Romanov family ought to serve as a cautionary tale.  But how to convey the complexity of the last Russian Tsar - a timid man who desperately did not want to be the ruler of Russia, but also a dictator who gleefully launched waves of repression against dissidents and Jews which killed thousands?  And how to do it for a high school audience?  In The Family Romanov, Candace Fleming has done a remarkable job on meeting the challenge.

Her book is an extremely well researched book, but reads a lot like a novel.  She also balances the "Dowton Abbey" gawking at the obscene opulence of the Russian elite with alternating sections that powerfully describe the horrible poverty and oppression of the Russian peasantry and workers.  

from the LOC (also on the books cover)

I love reading about Russian history and about this period just before and during WWI, and this book is a great addition to that list.  Fleming does a wonderful job of including enough illustrations and of explaining the basics of the Russian Revolution (no easy task).  She also manages to flesh out each of the members of the Tsarist family and conveying the both the historical and human sides of the story of their downfall and eventual murders.

This would be a great book to recommend to any student who is curious about the Russian Revolution, but doesn't want a dry history of the events.  It answers a lot of the basic questions, but also stokes the curiosity of any historically minded person who will definitely want to read more.

The War to End All War Protests

From LOC

Unraveling Freedom by Ann Bausum
Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, c2010.
88 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm.

This is one of those short, but visually stunning and well written books that National Geographic has been putting out for young readers (e.g. photobiographies Bylines & Knockout about Nelly Bly & Joe Louis, respectively, or Denied, Detained, Deported about abuses of US immigration).

I really enjoyed reading this book for the way that Bausum brings alive the times of WWI and makes the assaults on liberties and freedoms by the US government feel very contemporary. She is good at comparing the various attempts to propagandize, censor, and stifle dissent to similar actions that have accompanied other US wars, including the latest "war on terror."

I was struck, in reading the book, at how US trends of anti-intellectualism and blind patriotism have strong roots in domestic policies during WWI.  In the frenzy of anti-German propaganda (see graphic above), not only was German language instruction virtually wiped out of the US education system, but over half the states banned teaching any foreign language.

There is a lot to recommend about this book to any student interested in US history during the period of WWI and its aftermath.

Sprawling History, Sprawling Novel

The Kremlin, Moscow, Russia

Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
New York : Vintage Classics, 2011.
xxviii, 675 p. ; 21 cm.

I've been wanting to read Dr. Zhivago for some time, and given it's length  (675 p.), it seemed like a good choice for a summer read.

I enjoyed a lot about this novel - it richly conveys the crazy reality that war and revolution can force on people, and the ways in which people try to find a meaningful life within that.  It is also a great love story, of course, which is probably part of why the movie version in the 60s was so successful.

I liked the historical content and movement of a lot of the book, but I did find that the plot began to get a bit unwieldy and confusing as the novel went on, and felt rushed to me at the end.  I also just found the increasing number of improbable coincidences became distracting as read the book.

This was a good book, but not a fantastic novel, in the way that Dostoevsky and Tolstoy have their truly magnificent articles.  However, if a student is a fan of Russian/Soviet history and literature and is looking for a good read, Dr. Zhivago may be just what the doctor ordered!

Study War No More

British 55th (West Lancashire) Division troops blinded by tear gas  during the Battle of Estaires, 10 April 1918

The First World War by John Keegan
New York : Vintage Books, 2000.
xvi, 475 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.

I've been slogging through a lot of books of European history and especially WWI - The Proud Tower, The Sleepwalkers, and now Keegan's First World War, which I pointedly finished on Memorial Day.

World War One is truly emblematic of the sickening, meaningless, barbarous, and utterly worthless human phenomena of making war - particularly modern warfare.  Especially painful is the fact that WWI essentially lay the groundwork for WWII.  As Keegan states in the closing pages of his book, "The Second World War was the continuation of the First...."

When I finished this book, I was left numbed by the staggering numbers of young men killed in the WWI.  This passage toward the end of Keegan's work gives a sense of the monstrous carnage that WWI unleashed.

"To the million dead of the British Empire and the 1,700,000 French dead, we must add 1,500,000 soldiers of the Hapsburg Empire who did not return, two million Germans, 460,000 Italians, 1,700,000 Russians, and many hundreds of thousands of Turks...."

In what moral universe can a person truly reckon with or comprehend such massive slaughter?  And then to realize that these numbers will be increased by a factor of six or seven (including many more civilians) in the horrors of WWII leaves me feeling despair.

I will say that Keegan has managed to pull together a readable and lucid account of WWI which is no small accomplishment.  He also manages to tell the story with moral conviction, but a light ideological touch, so that the reader is allowed to form her own opinions about where the guilt and responsibility lies for the nightmare that WWI was. I would definitely recommend it to a student who is interested in a detailed but compact history of the "Great War."

The Sad Tower

The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
New York, Macmillan [1966]
xv, 528 p. illus., ports. 25 cm.

Barbara Tuchman intrigues me.  A woman who made her mark with several classic histories back in the 1960s when it must have been a daunting task to be a woman trying to get scholarly work published in the field of European history.  Not only did she get published, but is recognized for - not one - but several classic volumes of history such as A Distant Mirror, The Guns of August, and this book, The Proud Tower.  Every May as I've conducted the inventory of our collection, I've seen The Proud Tower, and thought, "I'm going to read that." In this 100th anniversary year of the start of WWI, I've finally gotten around to reading it.  It is a magnificent read, but probably one that would swamp most high school students.  I greatly enjoy history - and European history - but I have to admit that it was a long, dense - though enjoyable - read.

The Proud Tower is subtitled, A Portrait of the World Before the War: 1890-1914, and though, I'd call it a portrait of the Anglo-European-Slavic world, it is a monumental history.  Tuchman surveys the great political and cultural trends that defined the end of the 19th century and the run up to WWI: the declining power of the British aristocracy, the rise of naked US imperialism, Anarchism, Socialism, music, philosophy, and militarism.

I'm glad I read it, especially since I hope to read at least one of the new WWI books that have come out recently.  I can't say that I'd recommend it to just any high school student interested in history.  But if a student is a European history aficionado, or just looking for a rich book on Europe before the "Great War" then I'll definitely think of Tuchman's masterpiece.