August Artillery Fire

World War I ended the 19th century in the historical sense and marked the beginning of the modern world. As a turning point in history, "this terrible August stalemate determined the course of the subsequent war and the conditions for peace, and promoted the evolution of the situation between the two wars and the occurrence of World War II." But on the eve of the war, the vast majority of European politicians, intellectuals and business owners did not realize that they were only one foot away from the huge crisis that was about to break out. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Barbara Tuchman brilliantly illustrates the formation and outbreak of the crisis in August 1914 and the early battles of the war through vivid historical scene restoration, rich detailed outlines, and solid historical data support. Shortly after the publication of this book, the "Cuban Missile Crisis" occurred, which almost triggered a nuclear war. It was from this book that the then US President Kennedy learned historical lessons, which enabled the United States and the Soviet Union to resolve the crisis peacefully. These historical lessons are still of profound instructive significance to today's world. Barbara Tuchman uses superb narrative techniques to take readers into current events and people, forgetting the known ending, making the story full of suspense. Her portrayal of characters is particularly vivid, and she is able to calmly skip moral judgments and avoid harsh criticism. She uses a very human way of writing to describe how each defective person leads the world to a Greek tragic ending.