The guns of August

The guns of August / by Barbara W. Tuchman ; read by Nadia May.— Ashland : Blackstone Audiobooks, 2008.
1 WMA sound file (275541 KB) (19 hr., 10 min.)
ISBN: 9781433247439 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
Originally published: New York, Macmillan, 1962.
Unabridged
Downloadable audio file.
Requires OverDrive Media Console
Mode of access: World Wide Web

1. World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns 2. World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front.

940.4144

Germany came close to winning the First World War in the first month of fighting. German commanders confidently expected to march their exhausted troops into Paris in the first week of September. The French Government has already fled the capital. It was to be the crowning glory of a month of victories. Germany had a forty-day plan for winning the war and their armies were right on schedule. In four days they expected to be in Paris. What they did not expect was for the retreating French forces to turn and attack.

Tuchman’s Pulitzer Prize winning history stops on the eve of the first Battle of the Marne. It critiques the persistence of generals on both sides for their unwavering adherence to their war plan even in the face of contrary evidence that the enemy was not behaving as expected. Her portraits of officers and heads of state are vivid and witty, and her narrative style is superb. May skillfully reads the quotations in the narration in a subtly British, American, French, or German accented English.