One thought on “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam”

1. Babs is one crafty, talented instructor and this ranks highly among the BEST history books I ve had the pleasure of reading You should be reading it right now Seriously, I mean it This is the second gem by Barbara Tuchman that I ve tackled, after the stellar The Guns of August , and the impressiveness of her work has led to my developing rather intense, and possibly inappropriate, feelings for her I m smitten You see, Babs writes history in such a colorful, engaging manner that you don t notice [...]

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2. I thought The March of Folly would be a good read to balance out the optimism of The Wisdom of Crowds Turned out to be a great hunch.Why Indeed, Tuchman s book does in fact emphasize that very optimism Tuchman s Follies are committed not by the common people but by closeted leaders, lacking in common sense and cut off from ground realities Do I need to mention the Yes Men that surround them Tuchman takes up a panoramic view of human history and exposes these decisions, and wonders with us how mu [...]

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3. A highly readable account of four instances of human folly over the last 2800 years These include the Trojans s unaccountable bringing of the Trojan horse into Troy the transgressions of the Renaissance Popes which brought on the Reformation the loss by Britain of the American colonies and America s own pointless war in Vietnam The last section reminds me very much of Neil Sheehan s A Bright Shining Lie, which was written several years later than Tuchman s narrative Her book is vivid, clear, unf [...]

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6. Tuchman s The March of Folly is spotty First of all, too much attention is paid to Troy, about which nothing is known, historically speaking All that section does is provide a simile or two for what follows Also, she actually is stronger in another classical case not mentioned in the title or in most descriptions of the book, viz that of King Rehoboam of Israel Second, the account of the involvements of France and the United States in VietNam is of a journalistic quality not in keeping with the [...]

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7. About 8 years ago when I read this book I would have given it 4 stars It gets a 5 today simply because it is much pertinent to read it now Barbara Tuchman is one of the great writers of history She remembers the first rule of history Tell a story In this one she tells several and keeps your attention better The theme is imaginative and appropriate It is also not a very long book so you can easily read it in a week Barbara Tuchman has a way of viewing history as few can Instead of falling back o [...]

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8. A book which informed my entire world view, and still does Tuchman posits the existance of folly, or the pursuit of public policy contrary to self interest in other words, why nations keep shooting themselves in the foot She uses the Trojans taking the Greek horse inside the walls of Troy as her templatee feasible alternative that of destroying the Horse is always open Capys the Elder advised it before Laocoon s warning, and Cassandra afterward Notwithstanding the frequent references in the epic [...]

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9. The March of Folly is an unfortunate title Or maybe not so unfortunate Because, after all, what is folly Barbara Tuchman gives us several examples of the human animal at its worst but parading at its best From Ancient Troy right up through Vietnam can a sequel including Chechnia, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan be far behind , we have proved ourselves to be little better than the apes If there s a difference, it s only in the splendor of our rebarbative behavior Kings, Popes, Ministe [...]

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10. 30 3000 .

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11. Barbara Tuchman was a journalist before becoming a history author, and despite The March of Folly being a book about certain historical incidents, it is a work of journalism than history It is an investigation into the process by which governments embark on self destructive courses folly , despite recognition of the problem, and alternative courses being available As such, it is of a screed against certain practices, rather than a real attempt at balanced or impartial history.The good news is [...]

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12. Barbara Tuchman is a first rate writer and historian whose books I have much enjoyed For some years now I have been meaning to get a copy of The March of Folly, since it is a book which greatly appeals to me in its concept To look at the history of modern man since about 1,000 BC and take examples of real foolishness on the part of a number of key governments, and try to see why they so acted, strikes me as a wonderful idea for a book However, I can now say, somewhat reluctantly, that The March [...]

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13. I always enjoy Barbara Tuchman s ability to write compelling and accessible history be it the oubreak of WWI or the life of a french aristorcrat in the 14th Century, add to that a job which allows me to experience folly in all its glory, I had sky high expectations of the book.The premise was so promising, noted historian takes a four egregious disatsers the trojan horse, the papal actions in the lead up to Luther, the loss of the american colonies and the Vietnam war to understand what led to t [...]

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14. When I was in the 4th grade I found a book that my Mom had to read for college in the back of a cupboard That book was Barbara W Tuchman s A Distant Mirror , and I do believe that is what led me to all the other history books I ve enjoyed in the years since The March of Folly is a study of, in the authors words, pursuit of policy contrary to self interest, with four main examples The Trojan horse, The Renaissance popes, the British loss of America, and America in Vietnam I particularly enjoyed t [...]

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16. A must read

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17. I d love to know what Barbara Tuchman, who wrote this in 1984, would think of the current U.S political situation.From the epilogue In America, where the electoral process is drowning in commercial techniques of fund raising and image making, we may have completed a circle back to a selection process as unconcerned with qualifications as that which made Darius King of Persia.And what was that, you might ask When he and six fellow conspirators, as recorded by Herodotus, overthrew the reigning des [...]

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18. A fascinating attempt by Tuchman to explain or at least illustrate why governments choose the wrong path even when they know it s the wrong path She begins with the story of the Trojan Horse to illustrate the first written example of governmental folly leading to disaster.The next three examples are of the Renaissance Popes, the British handling of the American Revolution and the American actions before and during the Vietnamese War.The popes, in spite of criticism from many clerics and kings co [...]

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19. Good topic, but a little dry, fairly dense, and not as good as The Guns of August The author looks at the causes of four historical folly events the Trojan Horse, 6 corrupt Renaissance Popes leading to the Reformation and a sack of Rome , the lead up to the American revolution primarily from the British side , and finally French and American involvement in Vietnam and SE Asia.These follies are chosen because viable alternatives were available and popularly supported, and the decisions were taken [...]

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20. I found the section on Troy extremely interesting, the section on the Popes not very interesting, and the introduction I found OK Tuchman s thesis re folly was a new viewpoint for me, so I m pleased that I read as much as I did There seemed to be an awful lot of facts in each chapter So I decided not to read the sections on the American War of Independence, and on Vietnam.

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21. In this book Tuchman takes a step beyond the traditional historian s story telling role to provide color commentary about a specific subset of examples of misgovernment that she classifies as folly Not all examples of misgovernment can be classified as folly as explained in the following quotation Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination They are 1 tyranny or oppression , 2 excessive ambition , 3 incompetence or decadence , 4 folly or perversity This books is concerned with the last [...]

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22. Excellent, excellent examination of the tendency for political policies to continue down damaging pathways though multiple experts advise against it, which Tuchman describes as folly Her description of decadent popes directly encouraging the Protestant Reformation and the resulting loss of Roman power is fun, lively, and intellectually rigorous She falters a bit while explaining the British loss of the American colonies as a result of folly She would have been wise to shave at least 20 30 from t [...]

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23. Famles , , , , 1890 1914 , XIV , , , , , .

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24. Barbara Tuchman teaches us all about why the stupid people in power do the stupid things they do Inviting giant wooden horses inside the walls Provoking the Protestant Reformation Losing the American Colonies Bogging a superpower down in a brushfire war in a backwater country of no strategic significanceis one needs an update for the new century of follies, but alas Tuchman is no longer with us.

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25. In 2002 Elder Neal A Maxwell titled Encircled in the Arms of His Love As part of his talk, he briefly discussed the Founding Fathers and subsequently quoted Barbara W Tuchman from her book The March of Folly It would be invaluable if we could know what produced this burst of talent from a base of only two and a half million inhabitants As part of my quest to catalogue as many books quoted at General Conference as possible, I added the book to the list and shortly thereafter ordered it for myself [...]

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26. After reading The Guns of August I had very high expectations for The March of Folly My expectations were perhaps too high as this book left me wanting Unlike The Guns of August which takes a narrative form The March of Folly reads like a thesis with carefully selected evidence presented to support it While I found her arguments well reasoned I could not shake the feeling that much of the evidence was carefully selected to prove her points while counter evidence was left out.The March of Folly [...]

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27. Man, talk about phoning it in.Years ago I read Barbara Tuchman s famous Guns of August and thought it was great So I d give this one a shot Big mistake.She s just slumming it here not trying very hard The theme is times in history when a nation engaged in folly self defeating behavior That s a pretty broad theme that in encapsulate tons of examples She focuses on four items that don t really have much to do w each other, but she felt like talking about Well, really three things she spends just o [...]

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28. Insightful, particularly for a history noob like myself, Barb s writing is full of relevant advice, reflected in the mistakes of the past Although written in the 80s, the book remains valuable and interesting, and I always felt like I was in well researched, objectively neutral hands when reading I came away feeling like I had learned quite a lot I felt like I could better underrstand the pitfalls of bad government decision making and how to avoid making the same mistakes if I was ever in a situ [...]

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29. Spooky how little changes in 30 years or It does go on too long, in my opinion, but just imagine what she d have to say about Iraq and Afghanistan.

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30. The March of Folly was written by Barbara Tuchman author of Guns of August The book, as the title implies, discusses various case studies throughout history in which governments defied reason and pursued actions that were to their detriment The main examples that Tuchman discusses are 1 The Trojan Horse2 The Renaissance Popes and the lead up to the Reformation 3 The British Lose America 4 America s Involvement in Vietnam Below are the items from the book that I found interesting Folly sometimes [...]

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