Guns of August

by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

[brokentune]

Nope. Maybe it is this particular audiobook version, but I'm really not feeling the love for this book.

With The Guns of August, Tuchman wrote this incredibly detailed account of the first month of WWI - and the detail is staggering, so much so that it might even be somewhat overwhelming and that somehow this detail detracts a little from what otherwise looks like a one-sided portrayal. I mean the detail staggering (and the only aspect that kept me reading this far) and includes a lot of detail of the politics, personalities, military strategy, philosophical motivations, etc. of all parties involved.
However, what I cannot get passed is that the well-known (western) figures (Foch, Churchill, etc. - even Haig and French of whose short-comings Monty later wrote without holding back) come out pretty well, whereas the less well known (and for the most part Russian and German) personalities seem to be caricatures. There is a lot of national stereotyping - but maybe this is just exaggerated by the narration of this particular audiobook version which aims to read different characters in actual accents. (Why???)

It is seriously making me dislike the book.