Practicing History

by TUCHMAN, BARBARA W.

• ISBN13: 9780345303639
• ISBN10: 0345303636
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1982-08-12
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Summary

From thoughtful pieces on the historian's role to striking insights into America's past and present to trenchant observations on the international scene, Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. Here is a splendid body of work, the story of a lifetime spent "practicing history."

Author Biography

Barbara W. Tuchman achieved prominence as a historian with The Zimmermann Telegram and international fame with The Guns of August -- a huge bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. There followed other successes, including The Proud Tower, Stilwell and the American Experience in China (also awarded the Pulitzer Prize), A Distant Mirror, The March of Folly, and The First Salute.

Table of Contents

Preface	3	(8)
The Craft	11	(80)
In Search of History	13	(12)
When Does History Happen?	25	(8)
History by the Ounce	33	(12)
The Historian as Artist	45	(6)
The Historian's Opportunity	51	(14)
Problems in Writing the Biography of General Stilwell	65	(11)
The Houses of Research	76	(4)
Biography as a Prism of History	80	(11)
The Yield	91	(154)
Japan: A Clinical Note	93	(5)
Campaign Train	98	(3)
What Madrid Reads	101	(3)
``Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead''	104	(14)
The Final Solution	118	(5)
Israel: Land of Unlimited Impossibilities	123	(23)
Woodrow Wilson on Freud's Couch	146	(12)
How We Entered World War I	158	(15)
Israel's Swift Sword	173	(15)
If Mao Had Come to Washington	188	(20)
The Assimilationist Dilemma: Ambassador Morgenthau's Story	208	(10)
Kissinger: Self- Portrait	218	(9)
Mankind's Better Moments	227	(18)
Learning From History	245	(59)
Is History a Guide to the Future?	247	(9)
Vietnam	256	(1)
When, why, and How to Get Out	256	(3)
Coalition in Vietnam---Not Worth One More Life	259	(2)
The Citizen Versus the Military	261	(6)
Historical Clues to Present Discontents	267	(9)
Generalship	276	(11)
Why Policy-Makers Do Not Listen	287	(7)
Watergate and the Presidency	294	(1)
Should we Abolish the Presidency?	294	(3)
A Fear of the Remedy	297	(2)
A Letter to the House of Representatives	299	(2)
Defusing the Presidency	301	(3)
On Our Birthday---America as Idea	304