Barbara Wertheim Tuchman was an American historian, journalist, and author known for her narrative approach to historical subjects. She achieved major recognition with her works on twentieth-century history and military affairs. Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize for The Guns of August, a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World War I. The book became widely influential in how the early stages of the war were understood by general readers. She received a second Pulitzer Prize for Stilwell and the American Experience in China, a biography of General Joseph Stilwell that examined American military and diplomatic involvement in China during World War II.