“Books
are humanity in print. Books are carriers of
civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb,
science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.” –
Barbara Tuchman
Born in New York City on Jan. 30, 1912, Tuchman was a two-time Pulitzer Prize
winner, led by her 1962 best-selling award winner The Guns
of August (a prelude to and first month of World War I), and her 1970
biography on World War II General Joseph Stilwell. In 1978, she wrote the amazing A
Distant Mirror about the calamitous 14th Century but
considered reflective of the 20th, especially on the horrors of
war. That book, too, was a finalist for the Pulitzer.
Tuchman began her career as a journalist and in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, became one of the few women – along with Martha Gelhorn – working as a war correspondent for The Nation. Tuchman authored 11 best-selling historical books, many of which remain widely read and cited in both academic and popular history, maintaining her legacy and influence on historical scholarship.
“I
want the reader to turn the page,” she said of her popular writing style, “and
keep on turning until the end.”
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