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Barbara Tuchman

Barbara Tuchman Quotes

Historian

Barbara Tuchman was an American historian renowned for her in-depth research and vivid narrative style. Her works covered historical events from the Roman Empire to the 20th century, with 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' and 'The Guns of August' being particularly notable.

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Famous Barbara Tuchman Quotes

“Nothing can stop an enemy from picking wireless messages out of the free air - and nothing did.”

War Intelligence Espionage Zimmerman Telegram

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“Money was the crux. Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical destruction of war itself.”

War Causes Pay Century Cost Destruction Damage Crux Cost Of War Raising Money

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war.”

War Heels Jackals

Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Source: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“The social damage was not in the failure but in the undertaking, which was expensive. The cost of war was the poison running through the 14th century.”

War Running Social Century Cost Damage Poison Expensive Undertakings Cost Of War

Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Source: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“The Hundred Years' War, like the crises of the Church in the same period, broke apart medieval unity.”

Years War Church Periods Hundred Crisis Unity Broke Medieval

Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Source: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“The conduct of war was so much more interesting than its prevention.”

War Interesting Prevention

Book:The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series

Source: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series

“in the midst of war and crisis nothing is as clear or as certain as it appears in hindsight”

War Certain Clear Crisis Midst Hindsight

Book:The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series

Source: The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series

“War is the unfolding of miscalculations.”

War Peace Military Anti War Antiwar Unfolding Miscalculations

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no end in sight, only the hope that out of it all some good would accrue to mankind kept men and nations fighting. When at last it was over, the war had many diverse results and one dominant one transcending all others: disillusion.”

People Men Said Stills War Ends Lasts Fighting Hope Nations Results Mankind Spring Sight Winter Autumn Diverse Dominant Transcending Disillusion

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory as for rendezvous with discretion.”

War History Sea Glory Discretion Rendezvous North Sea

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“No less a bold and pugnacious figure than Winston Churchill broke down and was unable to finish his remarks at the sendoff of the British Expeditionary Force into the maelstrom of World War I in Europe.”

World War Force Figures Europe Down And British Broke War Of The Worlds World War I Remarks Maelstrom

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they do not need citing; 2) excessive ambition, such as Athens' attempted conquest of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War, Philip II's of England via the Armada, Germany's twice-attempted rule of Europe by a self-conceived master race, Japan's bid for an empire of Asia; 3) incompetence or decadence, as in the case of the late Roman empire, the last Romanovs and the last imperial dynasty of China; and finally 4) folly or perversity.”

Source: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

“More than a code of manners in war and love, Chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life.”

War Whole Moral And Love Noble Manners Code Governing Chivalry Knighthood

Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Source: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century