TUCHMAN, Barbara

Born 30 January 1912, New York, New York; died 6 February 1989, Greenwich, Connecticut

Daughter of Maurice and Alma Morgenthau Wertheim; married Lester R. Tuchman, 1940

Barbara Tuchman was a distinguished American historian who created narratives that brought to life people, places, and events of the past. Although academics at times criticized her approach, she earned the respect of many historians and had a loyal following among lay readers. She strongly believed history should be readable, and her grounded attitude carried through in her fascinatingly plotted history books.

Tuchman's first book, The Lost British Policy: Britain and Spain since 1700, appeared in 1938. During the following 50 years, she received critical and popular acclaim for her studies in history, with subjects ranging from 14th-century England to late 20th-century America. Two won Pulitzer prizes and several became bestsellers. Her commentaries on American and world policies also appeared in distinguished journals.

Tuchman's grandfather was Henry Morgenthau Sr., the businessman and diplomat; her uncle was Henry Morgenthau Jr., Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury; and her father was an international banker and owner of the Nation. Tuchman was educated at Radcliffe College. Her first job, with the Institute of Pacific Relations, took her to Tokyo in 1935. One of her earliest works is an essay on the Japanese character published in the prestigious Foreign Affairs when she was only twenty-three.Tuchman's work as a journalist during the next seven years, reporting from the war in Spain and writing in London for the magazine The War in Spain, led to the publication in England of her first book, The Lost British Policy.

Tuchman's Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour (1956) argues that support for the Jewish homeland in Palestine had a double root: imperial strategy in defense of Suez, India, and Middle Eastern oil fields, and the attitude toward what Thomas Huxley called the "national epic of Britain," the Bible. In 1958 came The Zimmerman Telegram, a historical work that aroused both professional respect and popular notice. It tells the story, only partly known until then, of efforts by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman, before America's entrance into World War I, to bring about an alliance with Mexico in return for territorial concessions in the United States.

The Guns of August (1962), which brought Tuchman a Pulitzer, applied a similar technique to a broader and more significant moment in World War I. Beginning with the description of the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman sketches the familial and political ties of Germany, England, and France and makes clear the interrelatedness of their world on the eve of its dissolution. It is typical of Tuchman's style in its mix of detail and long view, character, and event. She aims at an account of the way things happened, rather than seeking the underlying causes or attempting to convert events into arguments for historical theory.

Nevertheless, in her next book, The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (1966), Tuchman describes her interest in writing about the decade before World War I as coming in part from a desire to understand the war. Although the individual chapters—for example, on the Dreyfus case—are beautifully done, it is not easy to see how these particular parts of a social history support a coherent conception of the origins of the war.

In Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 (1970), for which Tuchman received her second Pulitzer prize, the career of General Joseph W. Stilwell becomes the central focus of an examination of the relationship of America and China. Tuchman sees Stilwell as quintessentially American and his career in China as a "prism of the times," representing America's greatest effort in Asia as well as the "tragic limits" of America's experience there. Tuchman believes the efficiency and aggressiveness Stilwell brought were like the Christianity and democracy he also represented—all foreign to Chinese society and not assimilable.

While the response of professional historians to Stilwell and the American Experience in China was very positive, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (1978) has been the most criticized of any of Tuchman's books. It has, however, received an enthusiastic greeting from the layperson eager to read well-shaped narrative about an unfamiliar period. Tuchman regards the 14th century as a period like our own, "a distraught age whose rules were breaking down under the pressure of adverse and violent events." Her original plan to follow the effects of the bubonic plaque was changed to allow her to explore the marriage alliances and treaties that made up medieval diplomacy and to examine the code of chivalry. Whatever professional questions have been raised about the book's overarching concept, its sense of time and place are as brilliant as in any of Tuchman's works.

Practicing History (1981) is a collection of essays in which Tuchman discusses the techniques and role of the historian. She also comments on some crucial events of her own day: the Six Day War, Watergate, and Vietnam. Tuchman's The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam (1984) examines four episodes of evident governmental blunder across a broad sweep of time, attempting to discern their commonalities. Her subjects include the Trojans' decision to bring a mythical Greek horse within their city walls, the refusal of six Renaissance popes to arrest the church's growing corruption, British misrule under King George III, and the mishandling of Vietnam by the U.S. She notes three vital connections between these highly varied events: that those responsible were all forewarned of outcomes of "folly"; that feasible alternatives existed; and that a group rather than an individual perpetrated foolishness. Although the book was criticized for its lack of a true common thread, Tuchman was praised for her thoroughness, imagination, and valuable insight into the political process.

In her final book, The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution (1988), Tuchman turns to the subject of the American Revolution and the reasons for Britain's defeat. Focusing on the failure of famed British naval officer Sir George Brydges Rodney to pursue the French fleet from his Dutch West Indian island base, Tuchman places the Revolution in international context. She draws parallels between the Dutch struggle for independence and that of the American colonies and, with great admiration for the leadership of George Washington, examines the forces on both the British and American sides that resulted in the American victory.

In addition to books and articles, Tuchman produced a significant paper on disarmament in the early 1980s entitled "The Alternative to Arms Control" for the Center for International Strategic Affairs at the University of California. Tuchman's many honors include honorary degrees from Yale, Columbia, Harvard, and New York University; the Regent Medal of Excellence from the State University of New York; and the Order of Leopold from the Kingdom of Belgium.

Other Works:

The Other One (alternate title Possessed, 1955). Notes from China (1972). The Book (1980).

Bibliography:

Atlantic (Dec. 1988). Nation (26 Apr. 1971, 6 Mar. 1989). NYRB (22 Dec. 1988). NYT (19 Oct. 1958; 7 Mar. 1984; 7, 8, 13 Feb. 1989). NYTRB (28 June 1962, 3 Feb. 1968, 28 Sept. 1978, 11 Mar. 1984, 2, 16 Oct. 1988, 12 Nov. 1989). Time (3 Oct. 1988, 7 Nov. 1988, 20 Feb. 1989). Times [London] (8 Feb. 1989).

—LOIS HUGHSON

ARGIT GALANTER,

UPDATED BY JANETTE GOFF DIXON