'To hold the reader's attention'

 

“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 

Historian, journalist and author, Tuchman – who was born in New York City on Jan. 30, 1912, was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for  1962’s The Guns of August (a prelude to and first month of World War I), and the 1970 biography on World War II General Joseph –  Stilwell and the American Experience in China.  
 

But she is perhaps best known for her insightful 1978 book A Distant Mirror about the calamitous 14^th Century but considered reflective of the 20^th Century, especially about the horrors of war.  That book, too, was a finalist for the Pulitzer and led the New York Times bestseller list for most of a year.

 

Tuchman dedicated herself to historical research and writing, turning out a new book approximately every four years.  She provided eloquent explanatory narratives in her writing and was called “a layperson's historian who made the past interesting to millions of readers.”

 

The author of 20 books, the last coming out less than a year before her death in 1989, Tuchman said all writing styles are acceptable in the sharing of history. 

 

“The writer’s object is – or should be – to hold the reader’s attention.”