Founder connections
- Joe CoulombeUsed in business-school lecturesIn a 1986 original interview Coulombe named Tuchman’s book as one of two works he regularly quoted in business-school lectures. This proves stated use; it does not establish a completed reading or his edition.Source
Summary
Barbara W. Tuchman follows the opening of the First World War through its leaders, plans and early battles. Starting with the funeral of Edward VII, she traces the paths that brought European powers into conflict and then concentrates on the first month of fighting in 1914. The narrative connects individual character with the assumptions and preparations of governments and armies. Its scope is the outbreak and early course of the war, rather than a history of the entire conflict. Readers see how the plans formed before a crisis met the choices and pressures of events as they unfolded.
Why read it Our view
For Coulombe’s shelf, read it as a case in strategy under pressure: compare the plans prepared before a crisis with the decisions made when events change. Coulombe named it among the books he used in business-school lectures.