Oh how I long for editors at publishers who would be more assertive in their roles, especially with prize-winning authors that are successful & notable.

This book was definitely illuminating. It told me much history, and provided an analytical viewpoint on it that was well-considered & supportable. (I need not share the viewpoint; but that’s not my point.)

But, for crying out loud - this book needed a strong developmental editor at a minimum, and likely even a line editor with a backbone. Tuchman jumped around with ideas & analysis in all of the main pivotal stories. I’m sure I read the same historical moment multiple times in each part, simply repeating for the sake of writing. And there are plenty of paragraph-long sentences in the book. I forget the point she’s trying to make within that single paragraph because there are soooo many conditionals. She drones on and on putting down pretty much all the information she has in her head about this these stories. And with no effective editorial pushback, this became an ego epic, not a work of of focused mastery.

Tighten it up, Barbara! This book would have been just as good at half it’s published length, and frankly not lost anything, IMO.

Had it been better more tightly edited I might’ve given this four stars. And honestly, this may be as much an indictment of the publisher as it is of Tuckerman. As it is, I can’t recommend it any higher than 3 stars simply because of the writing length.