“SOME DAMNED FOOLISH THING in the Balkans,” Bismarck had predicted, would ignite the next war. The assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalists on June 28, 1914, satisfied his condition.” — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share Image
“The world remembers the battle ever since by the taxis. A hundred of them were already in the service of the Military Government of Paris. With 500 more, each carrying five soldiers and making the sixty-kilometer trip to the Ourcq twice, General Clergerie figured he could transport 6,000 troops to the hard-pressed front. The order was issued at 1:00 P.M.,… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share
“The cutting off of Russia with all its consequences, the vain and sanguinary tragedy of Gallipoli, the diversion of Allied strength in the campaigns… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share Image
“In the Hundred Years’ War that dragged France and England through the 14th century, both sides would have liked to quit but could not, for fear of losing power and status; hate and mistrust fed by the war prevented them from talking. In the ghastly toll and futility of 1914–18, no end could be negotiated short of victory for one… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share
“The occasions when an individual is able to harness a nation are memorable, and Grey’s speech proved to be one of those junctures by… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share Image
“Wherever the Reformation took hold the Bible replaced the Pope as the final spiritual authority.” — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share Image
“Inevitably, as hatred of monarchy was added to hatred of episcopacy, they were led to republicanism.” — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share Image
“This country is indeed in a melancholy situation; sunk in ease, devoted to the pursuits of gain, incumbered with a complicated and perplexed constitution, divided among themselves in interest and sentiment, they seem afraid of every thing.” While deteriorating in their economy and lack of national unity, as Adams now saw it, and with a deep gap between rich and… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share
“Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share
“Persian poet said, the rose blooms reddest where some buried Caesar bled. The” — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share Image
“Cromwell. The door was flung open. In stalked the Protector, disgusted once more with the inability of human weaklings to come to the point, to get action, to see what he wanted and let him have it. Was it not, he berated them, every Christian’s duty to receive the Jews into England, the only nation where religion was taught in… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share
“Not a passing phenomenon nor an external force, the companies had become a way of life, a part of society itself, used and joined by its rulers even as they struggled to throw them off. They ate at society from within like Erysichthon, the “tearer up of earth,” who, having destroyed the trees in the sacred grove of Demeter, was… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share
“Guides were Franciscan monks, sole custodians of the holy places after 1230, who recited the history and traditions associated with each town or monument… — Barbara W. Tuchman Copy Share Image
