Editing Barbara W. Tuchman (section)

==Early years==
'''Barbara Wertheim''' was born January 30, 1912, the daughter of the banker [[Maurice Wertheim]] and his first wife Alma Morgenthau. Her father was an individual of wealth and prestige, the owner of ''[[The Nation]]'' magazine, president of the [[American Jewish Committee]], prominent art collector, and a founder of the [[Theatre Guild]].<ref name=Pollack>Oliver B. Pollack, "Barbara W. Tuchman (1912–1989)," in Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore (eds.), ''Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia: Volume II, M–Z.'' New York: Routledge, 1997; pp. 1414–1416.</ref> Her mother was the daughter of [[Henry Morgenthau Sr.|Henry Morgenthau]], [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s ambassador to the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name=Pollack />

While she did not explicitly mention it in her 1962 book ''[[The Guns of August]]'', Tuchman was present for one of the pivotal events of the book: [[Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau|the pursuit of the German battle cruiser ''Goeben'' and light cruiser ''Breslau'']]. In her account of the pursuit she wrote, "That morning [August 10, 1914] there arrived in [[Constantinople]] the small Italian passenger steamer which had witnessed the ''[[HMS Gloucester (1909)|Gloucester]]''{{'}}s action against ''[[SMS Goeben|Goeben]]'' and ''[[SMS Breslau|Breslau]]''. Among its passengers were the daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren of the American ambassador Mr. Henry Morgenthau."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The guns of August|url=https://archive.org/details/gunsofaugust0000unse|url-access=registration|last=Tuchman|first=Barbara W|publisher=The Macmillan Company|year=1962|isbn=9781617939310|location=New York|oclc=830668272}}</ref> She was a grandchild of Henry Morgenthau; she is referring to herself.  This is confirmed in her later book ''Practicing History'',<ref>{{Cite book|title=Practicing history : selected essays|author=Tuchman, Barbara W.|date=1981|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=0394520866|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=7460683|url=https://archive.org/details/practicinghistortuc00tuch}}</ref> in which she tells the story of her father, [[Maurice Wertheim]], traveling from Constantinople to [[Jerusalem]] on August 29, 1914, to deliver funds to the Jewish community there. Thus, at two, Tuchman was present during the pursuit of ''Goeben'' and ''Breslau'', which she documented 48 years later.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

Wertheim was influenced at an early age by the books of [[Lucy Fitch Perkins]] and [[G. A. Henty]], as well as the historical novels of [[Alexandre Dumas]].<ref name="Pollack" /> She attended the [[Walden School (New York City)|Walden School]] on Manhattan's Upper West Side.<ref name="bankruptcy">{{cite news|first=Douglas |last=Martin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/23/nyregion/walden-school-at-73-files-for-bankruptcy.html |title=Walden School, At 73, Files for Bankruptcy|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date= June 23, 1987}}</ref> She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from [[Radcliffe College]] in 1933, having studied history and literature.<ref name="Pollack" />