The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman
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Read in November, 2001
recommends it for:
George W. Bush, his entire cabinet, Congress.
Barbara Tuchman was one of the greatest historians of the last hundred years. She's so brilliant, in fact, that it was one of her books J.F.K. insisted his staff read during the Cuban Missle Crisis. In The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam (as well as The Guns of August, her history of the lead-up to WWI), she proves that she was also one of the most important military historians of the 20th Century. She comes from a solid background to have had a lifelong interest in these topics. Her family...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
History fans
Tuchman writes well, she obviously knows a great deal of history and can often reach that almost-impossible achievement of historians to both tell as many facts as possible while not overloading. I say 'often' because this book didn't always have this moment.
Two things I liked about this book:
1. Tuchman's deep familiarity with a very wide range of history topics and times.
2. The obviously matriculate and objective, clear way of defining 'folly' by a certain logical and smart definit...more
Two things I liked about this book:
1. Tuchman's deep familiarity with a very wide range of history topics and times.
2. The obviously matriculate and objective, clear way of defining 'folly' by a certain logical and smart definit...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to erik by:
no onerecommends it for: U. S. citizens
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 ...more
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Read in June, 2008
An excellent survey of the problem of folly in government. If you're not quite sure why we were in Vietnam, or why everybody hates Nixon so much, the 4th chapter should give you a better picture of just where the U.S. went wrong.
The 4 examples explored by Tuchman are:
-The mythical example of the Trojan horse
-The behavior of the Renaissance Popes that lead to the Reformation
-The British loss of the American colonies
-the U.S. betraying its own founding priniciples in Vietnam (no, it's...more
The 4 examples explored by Tuchman are:
-The mythical example of the Trojan horse
-The behavior of the Renaissance Popes that lead to the Reformation
-The British loss of the American colonies
-the U.S. betraying its own founding priniciples in Vietnam (no, it's...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Matt by:
Dad
Absolutely fascinating book and original subject matter. Nowadays it's trendy to write demeaningly of governments and persons in power. But Tuchman doesn't belittle individuals. She picks apart policies and trends--and if an individual has been part of the making of the policy or the trend, well, then they're trampled underfoot too.
I thought this was incredibly well-written and easy to read despite it's girth and depth. She peels back all the stupidity and folly inherent in the behavior of ...more
I thought this was incredibly well-written and easy to read despite it's girth and depth. She peels back all the stupidity and folly inherent in the behavior of ...more
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Read in April, 2006
Written by a two-time Pulitzer-prize winner. Covers:
1. The Trohans
2. The Renaissance Popes & the Protestant Succession
3. British Lose America
4. Viet Nam
Compares how the choices leaders make don't always result in the end they were trying to achieve. And an exposition on some of the blindness - in each of these four cases, they should have been able to tell that their course of action was NOT going to achieve what they wanted, but they persisted anyway (hence the March of Fo...more
1. The Trohans
2. The Renaissance Popes & the Protestant Succession
3. British Lose America
4. Viet Nam
Compares how the choices leaders make don't always result in the end they were trying to achieve. And an exposition on some of the blindness - in each of these four cases, they should have been able to tell that their course of action was NOT going to achieve what they wanted, but they persisted anyway (hence the March of Fo...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
Readers interested in history and contemporary society
Barbara Tuchman wrote this book to point out the tragic folly of the Vietnam war; I believe that if she was still alive, she would have updated and expanded it by now to address the Iraq war and other misadventures of the Bush administration, because for me at least, this book repeatedly produced an eerie sense that even though she'd been dead before any of this happened, she foresaw it and was talking about it too. Just goes to show that some patterns never seem to stop repeating.
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recommends it for:
People needing a refresher course in history
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 more 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 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.
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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 significance.
this one needs an update for the new century of follies, but alas Tuchman is no longer with us.
this one needs an update for the new century of follies, but alas Tuchman is no longer with us.
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Read in June, 2007
I just love Barbara Tuchman! She always does a great job of mixing social, political, and military history to give you a more complete picture of her subject. I think this book is especially relevant to our current period in history, and I would have loved to read the update to this book had Barbara still been living in the last five years or so...
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Read in January, 1984
recommends it for:
anyone interested in quagmires
Puts forth the proposition that man has a built in predisposition to act at decisive moments to their own disadvantage....beyond fretting military types or retrograde genetic royal messes...We're hardwired! Just the kind of thing the current hoard of ruling princes should have read...they wouldn't have liked it-no pictures.
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Read in July, 1980
Great book about some of the epic errors in history. Too bad no one in the current administration does much reading of this sort. This book covers some of the greatest blunders in recorded history. Back to Troy, the Popes that gave rise to the Reformation, VietNam, America's War of Independence. A great read.
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Read in February, 1993
recommends it for:
anyone still wearing their ear radio
i read this book way back when, in a cheap university press print. perhaps the only progress made since the book's publication is that it now sells for $1 used (from *many* sources) on amazon. snap it up before it's too late.
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Read in January, 1984
Not as well known as The Guns of August or Thr Proud Tower bu this is my favorite of all Barbara Tuchman's books. It's even more spot on today than when it was written after Vietnam. Stupidity always leads to disaster.
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Read in January, 2008
Great book with interesting detail but still wide in its scope of historic events. The portions concerning the British loss of America were most intriguing.
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What a great book to read especially given the recent US involvement in Iraq. Anybody think that Bush and his team read this?
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Read in December, 1999
I didn't like this as well as her A Distant Mirror about the 14th century, but she is a good history writer.
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Read in January, 2008
brilliant writer. still going but it has reawakened my love of ancient history... and modern, actually
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Probably worth a rereading of this classic on how you get into a quagmire.
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