How good is Barbara Tuchman's history? In one respect, the question is irrelevant because her readers have already answered it by purchasing hundreds of thousands of copies of her books. This fact alone might tempt the 'serious' student of history to dismiss her. But leaving aside her two Pulitzer prizes and her mountain of admiring reviews - many by distinguished and indisputably serious historians - Tuchman is not so easily dismissed. Broad in scope, ambitious in conception, carefully researched, her books make considerable demands on the reader, not the least of which is a willingness to pursue in minute detail topics as untrendy as the doctrinal disputes of pre-First World War socialists or the social and economic consequences of the Black Plague. That she has escalated her demands during the last twenty years while enlarging the circle of her readers suggests that she is a woman of distinctive talents.

LRB 21 May 1981 | PDF Download