The Library of America

The Guns of August (1962), an account of the outbreak of World War I and the weeks of fighting leading up to the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914. Tuchman dramatizes the diplomatic debacles that precipitated the war and the intransigence of the German and French armies as they dogmatically adhered to their battle plans, with disastrous consequences. Interwoven with her vivid re-creation of the German march through Belgium into France and the fierce fighting on the Eastern Front are astute characterizations of the conflict's key military and political leaders, among them French General Joseph Joffre, German Kaiser Wilhelm II, and British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. The Guns of August can also be read as a cautionary study in the perils of brinksmanship, and Tuchman's searching observations about the irrational escalation of conflict among states made a deep impression on President John F. Kennedy, who famously drew on the book for insight during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A collection of five crime novels written during the 1950s.

A collection of newspaper articles, pamphlets, speeches, and private letters from September 1787 to January 1788 chronicling the political debates that accompanied the Constitution's ratification from state to state.

Selection of writings by British-born political leader Thomas Paine, emphasizing his American career, and bringing together his best-known works in favor of independence, including "Common Sense," "The American Crisis," "Rights of Man," and "The Age of Reason," along with letters, articles and pamphlets.