Audiobooks by Barbara W. Tuchman

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

"A “marvelous history”* of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years’ War, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Guns of August *Lawrence Wright, author of The End of October, in The Wall Street Journal The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chaos and spiritual agony. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knight—in all his valor and “furious follies,” a “terrible worm in an iron cocoon.” “Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship … What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. … No one has ever done this better.”—The New York Review of Books "

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Aviva Skell (Narrator)

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Practicing History: Selected Essays

"The critically-acclaimed historian's insights, sense of humor, and sharp pen take on everything from Vietnam, Israel, and the Great War to writing history and its meaning. Includes these essays: Why Policy-Makers Do Not Listen; When Does History Happen?; Is History a Guide to the Future?; America as an Idea; How We Entered World War I; and more"

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Aviva Skell (Narrator)

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The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Davina Porter (Narrator)

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The Zimmermann Telegram

"In the dark winter of 1917, World War I was deadlocked. For Europe to be saved, the United States had to join the war-but President Wilson remained unshakable in his neutrality. Then, with a single stroke, the tool to propel America into the war came into a quiet British office. One of countless messages intercepted by the crack team of British decoders, the Zimmermann telegram was a top-secret message from Berlin inviting Mexico to join Japan in an invasion of the United States: Mexico would recover her lost American territories while keeping the US occupied on her side of the Atlantic. How Britain managed to inform America of Germany's plan without revealing that the German codes had been broken makes for an incredible true story of espionage, intrigue, and international politics as only Barbara W. Tuchman could tell it."

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Wanda Mccaddon (Narrator)

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Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour

"Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Barbara Tuchman explores the complex relationship of Britain to Palestine that led to the founding of the modern Jewish state—and to many of the problems that plague the Middle East today. From early times the British people have been drawn to the Holy Land through two major influences: the translation of the Bible into English and, later, the imperial need to control the road to India and access to the oil in the Middle East. Under these influences, one cultural and the other political, countless Englishmen—pilgrims, crusaders, missionaries, merchants, explorers, and surveyors—have made their way to the land of the ancient Hebrews. With the lucidity and vividness that characterizes her work, Barbara Tuchman brings to life the development of these twin motives—the Bible and the sword—in the consciousness of the British people. They were finally brought together at the end of World War I, when Britain's conquest of Palestine from the Turks and the solemn moment of entering Jerusalem were imminent. Requiring a gesture of matching significance, that event evoked the Balfour Declaration of 1917—establishing a British-sponsored national home for the modern survivors of the people of the Old Testament. In her account, first published in 1956, Ms. Tuchman demonstrates that the seeds of today's troubles in the Middle East were planted long before the first efforts at founding a modern state of Israel."

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Wanda McCaddon (Narrator)

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Practicing History: Selected Essays

"Master historian Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. This accessible introduction to the subject of history offers striking insights into American's past and present, trenchant observations on the international scene, and thoughtful pieces on the historian's role. History should not just be a series of facts, names, and dates—it should be a flowing narrative, the story of humanity, written as vividly as a novel. Here is a splendid body of work, the story of a lifetime spent 'practicing history.'"

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Wanda McCaddon (Narrator)

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Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45

"In this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Barbara Tuchman explores American relations with China through the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed "Vinegar Joe," Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of the National Review, "one of the historian's most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story." Joseph Stilwell was the military attaché to China in 1935 to 1939, commander of United States forces, and allied chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek in 1942-44. His story unfolds against the background of China's history, from the revolution of 1911 to the turmoil of World War II, when China's Nationalist government faced attack from Japanese invaders and Communist insurgents."

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Pam Ward (Narrator)

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The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

"In The March of Folly, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman tackles the pervasive presence of folly in governments through the ages. Defining folly as the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives, Tuchman details four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly in government: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain's George III, and the United States' persistent folly in Vietnam. The March of Folly brings the people, places, and events of history magnificently alive for today's reader."

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Wanda McCaddon (Narrator)

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The First Salute

"Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, distinguished historian, and bestselling author Barbara W. Tuchman finally turns her sights homeward. Here she analyzes the American Revolution in a brilliantly original way, placing the war in the historical context of the centuries-long conflicts between England and both France and Holland, demonstrating how the aid of both of these nations made the triumph of American independence possible. She sheds new light on the key role played by the contending navies, paints a magnificent portrait of General George Washington, and recounts in riveting detail the decisive campaign of the war at Yorktown. A compellingly written work of history, The First Salute presents a fresh, new view of the events that led from the first foreign salute to American nationhood in 1776 to the last campaign of the Revolution five years later. It brings vividly to life the people and events responsible for the birth of our nation."

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Wanda Mccaddon (Narrator)

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The Guns of August

"In this Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of kings and kaisers and czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along with war. How quickly it all changed—and how horrible it became. Tuchman masterfully portrays this transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, focusing on the turning point in the year 1914, the month leading up to the war, and the first month of the war. With fine attention to detail, she reveals how and why the war started and why it could have been stopped but wasn't, managing to make the story utterly suspenseful even when we already know the outcome. A classic historical survey of a time and a people we all need to know more about, The Guns of August will not be forgotten."

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Wanda McCaddon (Narrator)

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Notes From China

"'Two hundred years ago China's imperial rulers sensed a threat to a past-oriented society in the dynamism of the West and tried to frustrate foreign entry.'- Foreign Devils ... 'Today, one cannot escape the impression that if only it were not for world pressures Maoist China like that of the Ming and the Manchus would be happier if it could withdraw into the broad isolation of the Middle Kingdom.' - Ping-Pong ... Just one year after China's long-closed doors reopened to the West in 1971, Barbara Tuchman journeyed through its cities and countryside drawing the human face on this inscrutable giant. 'A creative writer's sense of drama and a scholar's obeisance to the evidence.' -New York Times"

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Rita Knox (Narrator)

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A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

"A “marvelous history”* of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years’ War, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Guns of August *Lawrence Wright, author of The End of October, in The Wall Street Journal The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and the exquisitely decorated Books of Hours; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague. Barbara Tuchman reveals both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived. Here are the guilty passions, loyalties and treacheries, political assassinations, sea battles and sieges, corruption in high places and a yearning for reform, satire and humor, sorcery and demonology, and lust and sadism on the stage. Here are proud cardinals, beggars, feminists, university scholars, grocers, bankers, mercenaries, mystics, lawyers and tax collectors, and, dominating all, the knight in his valor and “furious follies,” a “terrible worm in an iron cocoon.”"

Barbara W. Tuchman (Author), Wanda Mccaddon (Narrator)

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