"August Gunfire" Author: [US] Barbara Tuchman Publisher: Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore Producer: Ideal Country

It’s such a fascinating World War I classic that the Pulitzer Prize committee even took a “detour” to award it.

Author Barbara Tuchman is known as an "artist among historians" and her writing is immersive and fascinating.

What led the world into this "impossible" war? President Kennedy drew lessons from history to resolve the US-Soviet crisis.

【Editor's recommendation】

★ This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic shows with brilliant writing how the First World War, the end of the imperial era, started and quickly fell into a stalemate. It asks what made emperors, politicians and generals embark on this "impossible" war, influencing decision-makers in the United States, Britain and other countries during the height of the Cold War. It also has profound inspirational significance for the world today.

★ The book restores historical scenes with a suspenseful narrative technique and highly literary brushstrokes, making people feel as if they were there; it delves into materials such as letters, telegrams, diaries and even love letters, taking readers into the hearts of people at the time, and portrays flawed decision makers in a very humane way.

★ William Shirer, John King Fairbank, President Kennedy, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Guardian and other newspapers highly praised and recommended the book, with a special article introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner and famous historian Robert Massey.

★ A selection of 42 precious photos of key figures and wartime scenes of World War I; newly drawn combat maps of 10 key battles.

★ Liang Wendao, Liu Yu, Xiong Peiyun, and Xu Zhiyuan jointly edited the "Utopia Translation Series" (MIRROR) series (029) - Keep an open mind and non-utilitarian eyes to see the richness and complexity of the world.

【Recommended by famous experts】

One of the best books of our time...it kept me hooked from beginning to end.

—William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

After the release of "The Guns of August", it was immediately sold out and became an unprecedented success. Book reviews rushed to recommend it, and word of mouth quickly spread, attracting thousands of readers to have a look. President Kennedy specially ordered a copy for the then British Prime Minister Macmillan. His reading experience was: contemporary politicians must avoid falling into the trap of the August War of 1914 as much as possible. The Pulitzer Prize donors have set rules prohibiting the award of historical awards to works with themes not related to the United States, but the committee still found a name and awarded the author Tuchman the "Non-fiction Award". "The Guns of August" made the author famous overnight. Her works are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and her writing is fluent and elegant, but most readers only need to know that the author of this new book is the golden signboard of "Barbara Tuchman".

—Robert Massey, historian, Pulitzer Prize winner for Peter the Great

About ten years ago, I read Barbara Tuchman's book "August Guns". After reading a few pages, I was deeply attracted by the author's magnificent yet meticulous writing method. ... She pays attention to the choice of words and sentences, and wants the words to make sense and make readers read them interesting; she pays great attention to creating an atmosphere and making readers feel like they are in the story. Her books are elegant, brilliant, clean and neat, without redundant words, just like Caravaggio's insight and precision, and also Caravaggio's eclecticism. ...

In today's Chinese publishing industry, all kinds of shoddy historical reading materials abound, but vivid, rigorous and conscientious works are rare. Tuchman's works provide the best reference for those authors who are keen on "writing" history.

——Jiang Ming, historian

On the eve of the outbreak of the Great War (World War I), the vast majority of intellectuals, financiers and business owners in European countries did not realize that they were only a step away from the huge crisis that was about to break out. They were completely unaware of the risk of war catastrophe imposed on them by political leaders and military strategists.

The book "August Gunfire" points out many historical paradoxes and absurdities that make people think deeply. A group of ruling elites who are well versed in statecraft and the game of power balance, despite their scheming, could not avoid becoming the protagonists of historical tragedy; their carefully arranged military alliances and political commitments eventually became gravity accelerators in the escalation of conflicts.

—— Zhu Yunhan, academician of Academia Sinica, professor of political science at National Taiwan University, and director of the American Political Science Association

Barbara Tuchman's history is self-contained and needs no theory to support it. It simply fascinates readers, bringing them closer to the past than ever before.

—— John King Fairbank, famous American historian and sinologist

This book is an excellent example of how professional historical works can reach the level of literature as long as they are artistic enough.

—The New York Times

A fascinating military history, her account of the first month of the First World War is, as Churchill said, "more fascinating than drama".

——Newsweek

More dramatic than a novel...superb narration, ingenious structure, elegant writing, and a great pace throughout.

--Chicago Tribune

【Content Introduction】

The First World War ended the 19th century in historical terms and marked the beginning of the modern world. As a turning point in history, "the stalemate of this terrible August determined the course of the subsequent war and the conditions for reaching peace, and promoted the evolution of the situation between the two wars and the outbreak of the Second World War." But on the eve of the outbreak of the war, the vast majority of European politicians, intellectuals and business owners did not realize that they were only a foot away from the huge crisis that was about to break out.

In this Pulitzer Prize classic, Barbara Tuchman brilliantly presents the formation and outbreak of the crisis in August 1914 and the battles in the early stages of the war through vivid historical scene restoration, rich details and solid historical data support, asking what made emperors, politicians and generals step into a world war that no one wanted to happen and most people thought would never happen. Shortly after the publication of this book, the "Cuban Missile Crisis" that almost triggered a nuclear war occurred. It was from this book that then-US President Kennedy learned historical lessons and the US and the Soviet Union resolved the crisis peacefully. These historical lessons are still of profound inspiration to the world today.

Barbara Tuchman uses superb narrative techniques to take readers into the contemporary events, forgetting the known ending, and making the story full of suspense. Her characterization of the characters is particularly vivid, and she can calmly skip moral judgments and avoid harsh criticism. She uses a very humane writing style to describe how flawed people lead the world to a Greek tragic ending.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) is a famous American historian and writer, the first female president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and is highly respected by Fairbank, John F. Kennedy, William Shirer and others. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice in 1963 and 1972 for "The Guns of August" and "Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945" respectively. She writes history in a literary way, with dramatic tension and visual sense. She advocates that history should be regarded as a readable story and calls herself a "writer with history as the subject matter". She believes that historical writers are also artists and should use imagination and creativity to write clear and interesting history. Tuchman's works are a combination of rigorous academic research and exquisite writing, accompanied by profound reflection, and have a charm that fascinates readers.

In addition to the two Pulitzer Prize-winning works, his other works include Bible and Sword, The Zimmermann Telegram, Tower of Pride, Distant Mirror, The Craft of History, and The March of Folly.