A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchmans The Guns of August :: Barbara W. Tuchman The Guns of August

A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August â€Å"The Guns of August† was written by Barbara W. Tuchman in 1962. The book details the causes of the first World war and describes the first month of the war. The book clearly illustrates how a local war became an entire European struggle by a call to war against Russia. Soon after the war became a world issue. Summary of the Book Plans The Beginning (Chapters 1-5) The book begins at the funeral procession of King Edward VII of England in 1910. This procession contained a glorious array of Kings and Nobles from around the world, this was to be the last. Throughout the procession there are mournful faces, but one â€Å"mournful face† hides happiness. The happiness is of Emperor William II of Germany. Throughout his life and reign, Edward candidly exhibited his love for France over his neighboring country, Germany. Now that Edward was out of the way, William was sure that he had earned the position as the ruler of Europe the entire and would soon take action to prove to the rest of the world that Germany was more powerful than all. In Germany, the Chief of the German General Staff, Count Alfred von Schlieffen, created a plan of attack in case of the possibility of a two-front war. But, this plan required invading Belgium, which(at the time) was neutral territory and proteced by England, Despite the promise of England to Belgium, Schlieffen continued with his attack plans. He believed that Germany’s army was far more powerful and advanced than England, and that there was no reason he should feel threatened. After years of perfecting his plans, they were finally finished in 1906. Nevertheless after all of those years of planning, he failed to properly reinforce the eastern front. Even though he was highly criticized for this, he stood by his decision stating that he knew the Russians would force the army into the cold harsh, Russian winter, such as the case of Napoleon. Even though Schlieffen came up with this wonderful and well thought out plan, his successor, General von Moltke, changed the plans entirely. Like Germany, France also concocted an offensive plan.