{"product_id":"2026200015548-secondhand-the-proud-tower-a-portrait-of-the-world-before-the-war-1890-1914","title":"The Proud Tower: A Portrait Of The World Before The War 1890-1914","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore the guns of August shattered the old world forever, there existed a civilisation of breathtaking complexity, contradictions, and brilliance — and The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman is its magnificent elegy. Spanning the quarter-century between 1890 and 1914, this sweeping work of narrative history chronicles the social, political, and cultural forces that shaped the Western world in the years leading up to the First World War, painting vivid portraits of anarchists and aristocrats, pacifists and warlords, composers and statesmen, all caught in the amber of a doomed age.\n\nTuchman, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, brings her signature blend of scholarly rigour and novelistic storytelling to bear on a world teetering on the edge of catastrophe. Through eight finely crafted chapters, each centred on a defining figure or movement — from the rigid grandeur of the British ruling class to the fiery passions of the European socialist movements — she illustrates how the seeds of destruction were sown long before the first shot was fired. The Proud Tower is not merely a prelude to war; it is a profound meditation on power, hubris, and the fragility of civilisation itself, leaving the reader to wonder whether the world ever truly learned its lesson.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203199639771,"sku":"2026200015548-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/bf71ccb7-e18a-4208-b3df-e74b6430b12e.png?v=1788145491","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200015548-secondhand-the-proud-tower-a-portrait-of-the-world-before-the-war-1890-1914","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}