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

The Proud Tower examines the twenty-five years preceding World War I, a period marked by rapid and unprecedented change. Tuchman depicts the stark contrast between the luxurious lives of the privileged and the suffering of the underclass during this era. The book covers the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy, European and American Anarchists, Germany and Richard Strauss, Diaghilev's Russian ballet and Stravinsky's compositions, the Dreyfus Affair, the Peace Conferences in The Hague, and the Socialist movement. It concludes with the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the night World War I began, marking the end of an epoch. The Proud Tower is part of Barbara W. Tuchman's trilogy on the First World War era, alongside The Guns of August and The Zimmermann Telegram.