The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

#807
Title: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
Author: Barbara W. Tuchman
Publisher: Knopf
Year: 1984
447 pages

Audiobook.

In A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Tuchman follows details of individuals' lives to paint a portrait of the 14th century. In The March of Folly, she tells four tales--the destruction of Troy, the fall of the Vatican, the loss of the American colonies, and the war in Vietnam--to illustrate "folly"--governments or leadership groups that subvert their own interests despite evidence and warnings that they're not acting in their own best interests. It's an interesting question, though Tuchman ultimately succeeds in underscoring it more successfully than answering it. Her examples are spelled out and useful in promoting discussion. If I take anything from it, it's that "checks and balances" is a fiction.

The level of detail is dense and hard to follow, at least in an audiobook, but I didn't find that I needed to absorb and retain all of it. Tuchman brings the text back around to her question every few pages, so as in A Distant Mirror, the wash of data supports but isn't central to following the thesis. At times, this can result in a sense of plodding along through facts in order to get to the discussion. The Vietnam section was longer than the others, probably due to its recency (and, perhaps, it was the impetus for the inquiry), and so becomes more bogged down in details.

Given current political and governmental behaviors, this book has lost none of its relevance.