I love history. Tuchman understands those of us who love love
history, but aren't historians. She knows the lure of reading about
past times and fully imagining life for those who lived then. It's not
the facts or dates we want. We want to, for a time, be the person who
rode out of Paris to go on a Crusade, and rode past serfs tilling the
land, dressed in browns and blacks because they were forbidden to wear
bright colors by law. We want to feel the pride of being French,
thinking that we could defeat the German army because, we are
FRENCH!. But alas, the Germans crush us anyway. What did we feel then?
Tuchman tells history as a story, and makes us feel the wonder of the
connection we have with all the myriad, strange, and beautiful humans
who have lived and died to bring us to where we are today.
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