Tuchman does a fantastic job of telling history through her own lens--the lens of "folly," as she calls it. It may be one side of the story, but she supports it so well that one feels like it can be the only honest interpretation of the events as they shook down. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Vietnam, since I hadn't really understood America's role and read Tuchman's book primarily to remedy that ignorance. Interesting that my opinion on the Vietnam war didn't change--I still think it was really really stupid, and now, thanks to Tuchman, I have arguments to support that opinion! ( )

The recurring pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their self-interest is exhaustively chronicled in four examples: the Trojan horse, the Renaissance Popes provoking the Protestant reformation, the British loss of America by provoking the Revolution, and the Vietnam War. The follies must have been seen as counter-productive in their own time, with feasible alternatives available, and must be the result of group effort, rather than an individual. Thought provoking and deserving of greater study. ( )

A fascinating book which traces how political regimes tend to persist in folly in spite of all warnings to the contrary. The author examines the siege of Troy, a series of Popes immediately prior to the reformation, the British government prior to the American Revolution and the American involvement in Vietnam. The analysis makes fascinating reading especially when you compare the American folly in Vietnam under 6 presidents and the current involvement in Iraq. ( )

3062 The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, by Barbara W. Tuchman (read 23 Mar 1998) Tuchman was a superb popular historian and I loved her books. But this 1984 book of hers I for a time resisted reading because I knew it had scornful words for some Popes. But I decided to read it, and find my reason for not reading it was invalid. She does speak very disparagingly of six Renaissance Popes--Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, Alexander VI,Julius II, Leo X, and Clement VII--but they deserve what she says of them. Much of her research relies on Ludwig von Pastor, so I was not bothered by what she had to say. The book also gives a detailed and excellent treatment of England's folly from 1765 to 1783, and covers the subject in a way quite new to me. And she spends a lot of pages on Vietnam, and is cogent and persuasive, but the subject is painful to me even now. This has been a good book to read, though. ( )

This book takes a quite distinctive approach in focusing on incompetence or folly in history. Most historians don't go this far, perhaps limiting themselves to discussing errors or mistakes made or by having good versus bad (e.g. Hitler, Stalin). Even tragedy is more often detailed in history books than folly. This book makes the commonsense and yet radical observation that governments and leaders and perhaps whole groups can take actions which go beyond error into wholesale foolishness. It is obvious and yet eye-opening approach.

It is also interesting yet depressing while reading this book to play compare and contrast between the Vietnam war and the current mess in Iraq. There are many differences and a few similarities. The profound glaring similarity is the ability of wealthy powerful elites to lead a powerful nation into a fundamentally foolish endevour that is deeply hurtful to the the nations self interest in the long run. Perhap every generation has to learn that it can fail profoundly and tragically. ( )