The title of the book is the guns of august and tuchman concerns herself with the first major skirmish of the war in august of 1914 because it sets up the next four years of slow and painful trench warfare both germany and france have detailed plans to win the war in a matter of months both their plans fail and as the first few weeks of the fighting come to a point the germans march on paris the french are in retreat as are the british. The guns of august by barbara w tuchman is the story of the prelude to world war i and the very early days of the conflict the british the belgian king and president woodrow wilson were sensible minded as such they wanted no part of war however there was another faction that was anxious to conquer the germans were emboldened by the war of 1870 in which they trounced the french at . Study guide for the guns of august the guns of august study guide contains a biography of barbara tuchman literature essays quiz questions major themes characters and a full summary and analysis. A summary of barbara w tuchmans the guns of august the guns of august was written by barbara w tuchman in 1962 the book details the causes of the first world war and describes the first month of the war the book clearly illustrates how a local war became an entire european struggle by a call to war against russia soon after the war