Barbara Wertheim Tuchman was an American historian, journalist, and author, born on January 30, 1912, and passed away on February 6, 1989. She was renowned for her ability to write popular history with a clear and dramatic storytelling style.

Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize twice, first for The Guns of August (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World War I, and later for Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971), a biography of General Joseph Stilwell.

Besides her literary achievements, Tuchman was a member of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. In 1984, she signed a letter protesting German arms sales to Saudi Arabia.