The Proud TowerBy: Barbara W. Tuchman The classic account of the lead up to World War I, told with a rare combination of impeccable scholarship and literary polish (The New York Times)from the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Guns of August During the fateful quarter century leading up to World War I, the climax of a century of rapid, unprecedented change, a privileged few enjoyed Olympian luxury as the underclass was heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.