A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchmans The Guns of August :: Barbara W. Tuchman The Guns of August

A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchmans The Guns of AugustThe Guns of August was written by Barbara W. Tuchman in 1962. The bookdetails the causes of the first World war and describes the first month of the war. The book clearly illustrates how a local war became an entire European grapple by a call to war against Russia. Soon after the war became a world issue. Summary of the BookPlans The Beginning (Chapters 1-5)The book begins at the funeral progress of King Edward VII of England in 1910. This procession contained a glorious array of Kings and Nobles from around the world,this was to be the last. Throughout the procession in that respect are mournful faces, exclusively onemournful face hides happiness. The happiness is of Emperor William II of Germany. Throughout his life and reign, Edward candidly exhibited his love for France over hisneighboring country, Germany. Now that Edward was out of the way, William was currentthat he had earned t he position as the ruler of Europe the entire and would soon takeaction to prove to the rest of the world that Germany was more effective than all. InGermany, the Chief of the German General Staff, Count Alfred von Schlieffen, created aplan of attack in case of the possibility of a two-front war. But, this plan required invading Belgium, which(at the time) was neutral territory and proteced by England,Despite the promise of England to Belgium, Schlieffen continued with his attack plans. He believed that Germanys army was far more powerful and advanced than England,and that there was no reason he should feel threatened. After years of perfecting hisplans, they were finally finished in 1906. Nevertheless after all of those years ofplanning, he failed to justly reinforce the eastern front. Even though he was highlycriticized for this, he stood by his decision stating that he knew the Russians would force the army into the cold harsh, Russian winter, such as the case of Napole on. Even though Schlieffen came up with this wonderful and well thought out plan, his successor, General von Moltke, changed the plans entirely. Like Germany, France also concocted an offensive plan.