''The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914'' is a 1966 book by

Barbara Tuchman Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for ''The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World ...

, consisting of a collection of essays she had published in various periodicals during the mid-1960s. It followed the publication of the highly successful book ''

The Guns of August ''The Guns of August'' (1962) (published in the UK as ''August 1914'') is a volume of history by Barbara W. Tuchman. It is centered on the first month of World War I. After introductory chapters, Tuchman describes in great detail the opening even ...

'' (published in Britain as ''August 1914''). Each chapter deals with a different country, theme, and time (although all relate to the approximately 25 years preceding

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

). Two chapters are about British

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

s in 1895 and 1910; one chapter is dedicated to the

Dreyfus Affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

in France; and another is nominally about the Wilhelmine politics of late 19th-century Germany, but is really about German

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

in that period. Other chapters cover the United States (particularly the efforts of Thomas Reed, Speaker of the House, to overcome the tyranny of the absent quorum), the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the anarchist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the activities of the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations ...

and trade unions. The title of the book is derived from the 1845

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

poem " The City in the Sea". Two lines of the poem are used as the epigraph for the book: "While from a proud tower in the town/ Death looks gigantically down."

Publication history

*Hardcover, Macmillan, 1966 () *Mass-market paperback, Bantam Books, 1982 () *Paperback, Ballantine Books, New York, 1996 ()

External links

"'Proud Tower' Still Provides a Sharp-Eyed View"
review by

Jonathan Yardley Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) was the book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the ''Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Bac ...

, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', March 16, 2009; Page C01 1966 non-fiction books History books about the United Kingdom History books about France History books about Germany History books about the United States History books about the 19th century History books about the 20th century 20th-century history books Macmillan Publishers books Essay collections Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction-winning works {{Germany-hist-book-stub