[Ads-l] Request Yankee magazine 1980 - Help with Quote: History (or War) is the unfolding of miscalculations. Barbara Tuchman

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks for your helpful response, John. Here is some more background.
I am confident that "History is the unfolding of miscalculations" is
in Tuchman's 1970 book because it is in the 2001 edition.

The variant "War is the unfolding of miscalculations" is common now,
but I suspect that Tuchman neither wrote it nor said it. Below are
three references that contain the "war" version of the quotation and
two of these references point to "The Guns of August" (1962).

But I do not believe that the statement is present in "The Guns of
August". HathiTrust contains searchable copies of "The Guns of August"
and there is no match. I also performed a different check and found no
match. If some list member finds the "war" version of the quotation
before 1973 please let me know.

[ref] 1984, The Cynic's Lexicon by Jonathon Green, Section: Barbara
Tuchman, Page 192, St. Martin's Press, New York. (Verified on paper)
[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
BARBARA TUCHMAN
1912— American historian
War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
The Guns of August, 1962
[End excerpt]


[ref] 1990, The Fourth—and by Far the Most Recent—637 Best Things
Anybody Ever Said by Robert Byrne, Quote Number 496, Page not
numbered, (Quotations are numbered, but pages are not numbered),
Atheneum, New York. (Verified on paper) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
496
War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989)
[End excerpt]


[ref] 1993, The New International Dictionary of Quotations, Selected
by Margaret Miner and Hugh Rawson, (Second Edition), Section: War,
Quote Page 390, A Dutton Book: Penguin Books, New York. (Verified on
paper)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
—BARBARA TUCHMAN, The Guns of August
[End excerpt]

I am trying to find the "Yankee" magazine because the dialog with
Tuchman is fun. Also interested in "History is the unfolding of
miscalculations" before 1970; "War is the unfolding of
miscalculations" before December 3, 1973

Garson

On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 6:40 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
> I don't have full-text access, but it looks like the article is probably Tim Clark, "Barbara Tuchman:  In Search of Mankind's Better Moments," Yankee, Aug. 1980, at 60 - 63.  I'm not sure about the final page, but another article begins on page 64.  According to Gale, the magazine examines the people, history, culture, and way of life of New England and is published by Yankee Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 520, 1121 Main Street, Dublin, New Hampshire.  That's probably current or recent publisher information and does not necessarily represent the information in 1980.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
> Sent: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 3:44 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Request Yankee magazine 1980 - Help with Quote: History (or War) is the unfolding of miscalculations. Barbara Tuchman
>
> "War is the unfolding of miscalculations" has been attributed to
> historian Barbara Tuchman in newspapers, books, and even reference
> works. I was asked to investigate.
>
>  I believe that Tuchman actually wrote: "History is the unfolding of
> miscalculations". This statement appeared in the 2001 Grove Press
> edition of "Stilwell and the American Experience in China", and I plan
> to check the original 1970 edition shortly.
>
> The quotation was garbled in a "New York Times" book review published
> on December 3, 1973; the word "war" was substituted for "history".
>
> Request: The journal "Yankee" apparently printed an interview with
> Barbara Tuchman in 1980, and I would love to get scans of the
> interview (plus scans showing the date of the issue, and the publisher
> information).
>
> Year: 1980
> Periodical: Yankee
> Volume 44
> Month: Unknown (Currently it is a bimonthly)
> Article Title: Unknown
> Quote Page 63 (Please examine all pages numbered 63)
> Note: Article may start on page 61 because "Barbara Tuchman" appears
> in large type on page 61
> Database: Google Books Snippet; data is incomplete and may be
> inaccurate; must be verified with hardcopy or scans; there are 1980
> issues in the volume.
>
> [Begin extracted text]
> "History is the unfolding of miscalculation," I quoted.
> "Right! Who said that?"
> "You did."
> "I did?" she said with surprise. "Did I really? Very good. It is." She
> looked pleased with herself.
> [End extracted text]
>
> Garson
>
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