The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara W. Tuchman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Proud Tower consists of eight essays by the author on various facets of European and American society before the outbreak of the First World War. The book is not a comprehensive history of the years before the war; each essay is self-contained though obviously people and events can appear in more than one essay.

The essays paint a portrait of society in the years 1890 to 1914. So much has changed since the First World War, that in many respects this society no longer exists. The book is an interesting window into a vanished society.

There are two essays focused on the United Kingdom, one on the United States, one on France during the Dreyfus Affair and one on Germany. There is also an essay on the Hague Conferences on disarmament, an essay on Anarchists and the final one is on Socialism. It is a somewhat eclectic mix, but all of the essays are interesting.

I enjoyed the book; long ago for a class in European History I read two of the essays, so it was interesting to read them again, and also read the other six. If you’re interested in this period of History or the First World War, I definitely recommend this book.