Kulturgeschichte of the end of the Belle Époque

Review of The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman

This book is about the cultural currents of the late Belle Époque, the generation just prior to World War I. Rather than treat it as a decadent precursor to the war, that “fateful, spiritual Ennui” that is popular convention, Tuchman strives to portray how the people of the time saw themselves and what they were trying to do. The result is an absolutely…