Barbara W Tuchman - A Historian par excellence..
She was a born an aristocrat; educated in the highest traditions of the country; exposed to all the luxuries that life could possibly provide; could have chosen a career of her choice in any direction that she may have wanted to - yet, she settled to writing history for the common public. Barbara Tuchman, the grand dame of American life was perhaps one of the finest historians of the last two hundred years alongside the Durant’s, Toynbee’s and Jacques Barzun’s, who retold great stories of contemporary history in a form and manner accessible to educated citizens.
Barbara Tuchman was born in 1912 into a Jewish family with a rich International banking experience, philanthropic institutions, and political new papers on her Father’s side; and a rich inheritance of political offices on her Mother’s. Growing up in the lap of luxury; educated in Walden and Radcliffe; worked as a journalist (in her father’s newspaper “Nation”), a writer reporting on the Spanish civil war; travelled the globe to feel the winds of freedom wafting through nations and absorbing its cultural fragrance – Barbara was quick to perceive that academic historians weren’t doing justice in presenting American or world history to its public ,or failing to recount history as a lively cultural, political and economic force that involved living, breathing individuals whose personal proclivities and intellectual choices decided the course of some of the seminal events in the last century. Coventional history books with its gross pedantry, unnecessary focus on arcane and often trivial facts, a mechanical narrative of chronological documentation against dynamic movement of life and culture – moved and inspired her to attempt historical writing from a different perspective altogether. Unarmed, without a formal academic qualification to do the job, she relived the experiment of America in her mind and self-study; revisited historical sites to imbibe its vitality and essence; captured in her mind's eye a panoramic view of powerful currents that swept through the early years of complacent Europe; then sat down to write a series of stunning volumes from 1962 till her death in 1989, that lifted our understanding and appreciation of those momentous years; sensitized us to the cataclysmic changes that triggered the great wars and its subsequent social and moral upheavals. Between 1940 to 1956, she married an intern, Dr Lester, who subsequently went on to become a professor emeritus at Sinai school of Medicine (where her Father was a founder trustee), raised three girl children, and spent her time systematically preparing for the work that lay ahead of her. Her Eldest daughter later recounted in one her interviews: “My mother worked to a strict time table. She had enough time for us, whenever we needed it; but once she goes into her study and closed the doors, we knew that she was lost in a world of her own; and I would gently creep into her room to feed her a cup of tea of lunch. But never once, did we miss her. She was in my opinion the perfect blend of a mother and a self-taught scholar….”
Her effort at writing history began with “The Zimmerman’s telegram”. A unique account of an intercepted communication from Germany, which provoked and triggered the entry of USA into the First World War. In it was visible all the elements of brilliant narration that was to characterize her work. Precision and flair in language, deft use of epigrams, art of cutting through multitude of research to strike at the core issue without comprising its truth, and more importantly, a singular sense of pride in American values, ethics and its unique historical destiny – These hallmarks would distinguish her in American world of letters.
Ms. Tuchman next book was perhaps her masterpiece. “The guns of August” published in 1962. It was a unique rendering of the origins of First World War. Those tumultuous and controversial two months of July and August 1914, when the forces of Western civilization were aligning themselves strategically, and tensions in Europe were simmering to a boiling point; key political personalities, military strategists and resolute statesmen were playing their game of cat and mouse – the geo politics of Europe was is in a state of flux. Those final days preceding the war was punctuated with key military decisions, blunders and lack of perspective. Convectional history would project those final days as an inevitable consequence of historical process that have been shaping European history since renaissance, but on a closer look, a different view point emerges. With total disregard for conventional historical writing, Ms. Tuchman rummages through tomes of research gathering into herself a single theme - the grand forces, follies and stupidity that precipitated the first gun shot that ushered in World war. Her attempt was not to re-theorize about abstract causes, but to present the tale as an intellectual, emotional and often instinctive choice made by a few key individuals upon whom the deliberations of the war fell. Professional historians smirked, scholars derided the depth in scholarship; but educated public loved the account for its balanced veracity and humane rendering of a poignant moment in World history. It won the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1972, she turned her attention to the east, and focused on the life and times of Joseph Sitwell, military attaché to China. The outcome was the book “Sitwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45”. Through his eyes and journals, Ms. Tuchman recreated the political and cultural ethos of China in the early 20th century; the revolution in 1911 to beginning of Second World War. Again, an immaculately written and readable account of the times. Her strength lies in her ability to look at history through the eyes of its protagonists - feel, think and breathe with them. Like Gibbon, she could describe a slice of history with a few breathtaking strokes of her pen. America honored her with a second Pulitzer. Apart from these three books, there were a few others that flowed from the pen of this conscientious American. “The Proud Tower” - a collection of essays on life and times before the 1914, was again well received by reading public.
My desire to pen this essay was aroused, when I was talking to bunch of youngsters the other day. These were bright kids graduating out of high school this year, and they hadn’t heard of Barbara Tuchman at all. I don’t blame them; media scarcely mentions her name, teachers and parents do not mention her work, and her books are relegated to a corner in select book stores. It is not that her words have turned stale; but that we have lost our aesthetic and intellectual sensitivity. As parents, we don’t slip such books to them on their birthdays any more, gently reminding them on their cultural, moral and literary heritage. We prefer giving them digital toys and expensive vacations to fun towns. Nothing wrong, but somewhere we must steer them to experience the richness of our global heritage. Hence this short essay.
Also, during my study, I came across one of the last known interviews of Barbara Tuchman by Bill Moyers on PBS (one of the most intellectual TV anchors television has ever known…). She was seventy six then, and had just completed her last book. Watch it, and you will get a sense of what it is to be proud of being part of a free democratic nation. You will hear a true voice of a genuine citizen who believes deeply in what her country stands for, and one understands why her books resonate with such passion and integrity. Ms. Barbara Tuchman represents the highest kind of flowering a culture can give birth to, and her books have and will always give me solace and inspiration as a human being, citizen; and as a humble adventurer in my intellectual peregrinations.
God bless….
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