The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam - Hardcover

Tuchman, Barbara Wertheim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394527771 ISBN 13: 9780394527772

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 1984

Synopsis

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Barbara W. Tuchman, author of the World War I masterpieceThe Guns of August, grapples with her boldest subject: the pervasive presence, through the ages, of failure, mismanagement, and delusion in government.

Drawing on a comprehensive array of examples, from Montezuma’s senseless surrender of his empire in 1520 to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Barbara W. Tuchman defines folly as the pursuit by government of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives. In brilliant detail, Tuchman illuminates four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain’s George III, and the United States’ own persistent mistakes in Vietnam. ThroughoutThe March of Folly, Tuchman’s incomparable talent for animating the people, places, and events of history is on spectacular display.

Praise for The March of Folly

“A glittering narrative . . . a moral [book] on the crimes and follies of governments and the misfortunes the governed suffer in consequence.”—The New York Times Book Review

“An admirable survey . . . I haven’t read a more relevant book in years.”—John Kenneth Galbraith,The Boston Sunday Globe

“A superb chronicle . . . a masterly examination.”—Chicago Sun-Times
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this title

Product Description:

From the distinguished American historian whose work has been acclaimed around the world, a major new book that penetrates one of the most bizarre and fascinating paradoxes in history: the persistent pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.

Across the march of thirty centuries, Tuchman brings to life the dramatic events which constitute folly's hallmark in government; the fall of Troy, symbolic prototype of freely chosen disaster; the Protestant secession, provoked by six decades of spectacularly corrupt papacy; the British forfeiture of the American colonies; and America's catastrophic thirty year involvement with Vietnam.

The March of Folly, a work of profound and poignant relevance today, is breath-taking in its scope, originality and vision, and represents the writing of Barbara Tuchman at its finest.

Review:

A Tuchman book always teems with colourful characters... observed with a relentless and unforgiving gaze... and what an eye for detail and flair for language she possesses! (London Review of Books)

Admirers of her earlier works will find Barbara Tuchman's familiar virtues on display. She is lucid, painstaking and highly intelligent. She is also highly expert. (Sunday Times)

Few historians, if any, write as well as Barbara Tuchman (J.H. Plumb)

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0394527771
• ISBN 13: 9780394527772
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1