There are few books that capture a feeling of nostalgia, merge that with a sense of awe, and top their thematic with the extravagance of example and prose like Barbara Tuchman does in The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914. Decay, confidence, opulence and grandeur are summoned as her muses in her exploration of the greatest and saddest era of Western cultural explosiveness. This twillight of European power and culture, this confidence in the future, this enstrangement of culture and of government from its own society are perhaps subjects rarely discussed as proficiently as done by Tuchman. Her choice of case studies around which a broader portrait of the fin-de-siecle is painted is wise, though the lines between the points aren’t drawn for the reader and as the introduction to the work clearly states, that isn’t the aim either. The only overarching sense that one can distill from this work is perhaps the clearest; the savage nature of history and her unforgiving advance. For where else could one comfortably place the reason behind the decay of the greatest powers of the Earth so well heralded in The Proud Tower? Those proud titans that recognized no superior unless willingly succumbed to the weakness of their own ancient limbs. Empire fell under economic strain and the rise of its own products. Industrialism birthed economic problems and nurtured the seeds of Socialism in its own tinfoil gardens. Heraldry and elegance were shattered as easily as crystal glasses and the noble army was undermined by its own shady schemes. Through these and many more Tuchman takes us; in a journey that spans across the late 19th century and all its flickering wonders.
Tuchman paves the path with rose petals and flower buds as she begins her narration from the highest of the high, the most glamorous, the richest and most powerful of the Western world. The patricians of imperial Britain, the aristocracy of the Old World, the beating heart of tradition and the very top of the social hierarchy mark the start of one’s journey through The Proud Tower. Culturally, there were none that the elite of the West wanted to imitate more. Politics was the gentleman’s game and there were no finer gentlemen than the patrician class of the British Empire in the land to play it. Born in a world that existed to serve them, bred to rule, groomed to be superior, the peak of British aristocracy had reached the late 19th century ready to bring the Empire forward to the modern world. After a detailed and lavishly written review of their proud castles and palatial glories, Tuchman moves to slowly describe the class distinctions and antagonizing class sentiments that were almost impossible to suppress when a contemporary grew aware of the opulent existence of such a patrician class in one’s own nation. The marvels of fashion, the beauty of the tall-necked ladies which likes swans waved through the sumptuous parties of the great old country, the heroic feats of diplomacy and conquest at the hands of intelligent and most capable lords and officers, the intricacy and finesse of oratory and politics by the great men of imperial Britain such as Balfour and Salisbury, or the exceptional wordcraft of its authors, chief of whomst were Kippling or Wilde are numerous and shine through Tuchman’s writing. Unopposed and unchallenged the patricians not only throve but dreamt of a future where the Sun never Set, praised worthily by Tuchman’s lucid narrative.
In this environment of great class polarity and a world where incredible wealth also prompted to incredible poverty, the foundations for an ideology as black as the coal mines and the banner of its summons rose from the tawny mud. Anarchism and its dreadful bannermen spread like wildfire across the world. Like sparks of summer fire clasping desperately dry blades of yellow grass so did the Deed palpitate across the world; ruthless assassinations, destructive bombings, passionate speeches and articles that moved “men of action” to deeds that shattered and shook Empires and the very status of royalty. But the anarchists did not provide a united front. Tuchman walks the reader through the factions, intellectuals and brutes that operated under the Black Flag, each for their own ends, each with their own dreams and ideals to fuel them, from the icy offices of Russia to hot flats in Spain. Unfolding between the divisions of classes in a world that grew and prospered only for a few, and the progress for some into wealth meant the descent of others into adversity, The Proud Tower paints a portrait of grim futurism hatching under the vigilant watch of an international intelligentsia that fostered its young wings with carefully placed words and slogans that roused deeds most horrible.
And as the foundations of the Old World began to tremble with the smell of gunpowder and the taste of blood shed by the anarchist tide of terror a new power arose to meet them. America’s transformation from a New World leader to a global leader was a process that started in the late 19th century. Tuchman explains the unfortunate fall of Spain as an Empire at the hands of anarchism, division and savage war. Their prominent position was inherrited by the Americans through the old Spanish colonial possessions of Cuba and the Phillipines. A redefinition of American interests came from the redefinition of naval power, which in the 20th century cemented the focus of the rising power towards the outside world. A fierce debate broke out between those that wished to upgrade internal American life and those that wished to conquer the world. The quest for glory and conquest came out victorious. Tuchman writes with remarkable precision and insight how the factions of the Jingoes and the isolationists fiercely contented with the mettle of their words and the passion of their speeches greatness which faded into the shadows of great oratory; momentary but forgettable before the tide of politics. Alas the ancient tragedy of democracy ensued; the art of words fell yet again ever short to the art of the possible.
As this force for modernity rises against the powers of reaction and conservative order from the swirling waters of the Atlantic to the mighty tides of the Pacific, Ms. Tuchman takes the reader across the Great Western Ocean to the shores of France where a crime shivers across the nation of the Revolution. The infamous Dreyfus Affair which electrified the French people and political system for more than a decade, had immense impact in the political world both of France and the rest of Europe in ideological and theoretical ways, but primarily through the rift it caused French society to suffer. The Proud Tower analyzes this dark chapter of French history which tested the cornerstone of conservatism in France; the army, and which shook the foundations of the political system by introducing and enshrining Humanism and Moralism in the socialist and left-aligned groups and rhetoric. More than anything else though, Tuchman reveals through this exploration of late 19th century France, that the Revolutions of 1848 had indeed succeeded. Society had inherrited through the revolutions of the 19th century the capability to be divided along ideological lines. Indeed everything that was indeed part of a nation inherrited this, as institutions proved as easily divisible along those lines also. The military, the courts, the press, the workers, the farmers, the Church, the universities; none were exempt. And the Dreyfus affair proved this perfectly. Nationalism claimed the Army and the Church, Socialism and the Left leagues claimed the universities and the press at large. The workers and the farmers were divided and questions of anti-semitism, morality and patriotism proved powerful forces in the tearing apart of the social cohesion. The aristocracy picked sides and anti-semitism came to the forefront of national politics for perhaps the most intense example mentionable. The following quote sums up the Dreyfus affair as a culture war: “While it lasted, France exhibited, as in the Revolution, political man at his most combative. It was the times of excess. Men plunged in up to the hilt of their capacities and beliefs. They held nothing back. On the eve of the new century the Affair revealed what energies and ferocity were at hand to greet it.”
The next few chapters lead the narrative through the cultural and political international trends of the fin-de-siecle. The calls for international pacificism, the rise of scientific advancement and the fading of Victorianism bit by bit, new crises shaking the international order as well as a violent and unorgiving advance of technological progress are shaping the 20th century into a brutal period. The impact is seen in the prominence of bellicosity aligned with financial interest, the rise of new political parties ready to exploit the modern trends to grow in popularity as well as the slow decline of the old aristocracy are documented in detail. Tuchman takes the reader through the artistic and cultural image of the years leading up to the first World War as well, by exploring the figures of Strauss and Diaghilev. Titans in their own right and genres, the two men defined the revolutionary progress through the arts, the avant garde of progress enshrived in the upheaval of old morality and standard, the stirring of the pot, and the emergence of more brutal and less prudent art, meant never to teach but to provoke, much like history for those fiery scholars of the time. Provocation indeed proved to be King, and polemic was the nature of those willing to have their voice heard.
Lastly, Tuchman through the eyes of the Socialists takes a stroll in the shadowy Congresses of the Internationale, the filthy factories of Western Europe and the red-bannered rallies in the cobble streets of Belgium and Britain, as she explores with precision the rise of the Liberal and Labour factions in the British Empire and the emergence of Socialism as an organized force in the early 20th century political scene. Power exchanges hands from the Conservative government to a Liberal government in Britain which inherrits an impetus towards change and reform that it is largely unable to meet. Faced with mounting challenges, illusions of break like mist in the late morning. Not only that, but the waves of Reformism strike deep into the heart of socialist orthodoxy from its own ranks across Europe, shattering the mirage of permanent revolution as the exclusive path to Socialist progress leaving the red factions searching for ways to achieve their goals and maintains ideological purity. The art of the possible is introduced properly to the Marxian dialectic, which has for so long elluded it as it itself eluded those seated in the seats of parliaments and power. Culminating with the assassination of Jaurès and the breakout of World War I, the socialist dreams of power, peace and prosperity were shattered with a bullet; felled like the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the lively but different kind of prince of Socialism, Jean Jaurès.
The work is well written and its prose certainly is the most important part of its total makeup as in the way of historical research and analysis it offers little. Its main goal isn’t to analyze or produce an overarching theory explaining cause and effect, but rather to paint an image of the fin-de-siecle as the author herself explains in the foreword. She paints that image quite well, and though historically it reveals less, it points to significant points which culturally and ideologically paved the way for the 20th century. Tuchman essentially works out some of the intricacy of the buildup to the tumultuous years up to 1914 and beyond, by delving into a cultural analysis instead of a strictly historical one. That isn’t to say that historically the work is poor, but rather that when viewed from its cultural roots and points, it obtains a value quite more significant in understanding the period it situates itself in. This is an intuitive and productive choice on the behalf of the author if it is assumed a conscious one, as this type of analysis proves equally important when examining the fin-de-siecle and the intellectual history behind the early 20th century. Indeed, from an intellectual history point of view, cultural analyses of the sort are perhaps best suited to the exploration of the roots and causes behind the intricate events of the Age of the Mass, to which post World War I history increasingly is proving to belong.