the march of folly review

And the test should be moral courage." translated by Timothy Patrick McCarthy. When Barbara Tuchman first wrote the book, there was hope that we were moving from illogic to logic, from unreason to reason, from stupidity to wisdom. with 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. . If you are like me the book will get more and more interesting as it gets closer to home. Technology has pressured us to speed up our lives. Especially enjoyed the section the Trojan war -- history or legend (the message is still the same! but failed in religion. She moves along it without missing, never, what she wants to convey. I just never became convinced of the unity of the whole. Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2018. Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2018. Another issue was the control of all trade by England allowing no manufacturing in the colonies and the prohibition of trade with nations other than England. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. The main case studies are the fall of Troy; the Reformation in terms of the Papal failings which bolstered it; Britain's loss of the American colonies; and, in the book's last and longest section, the Vietnam War. (On the other hand, "Kennedy was no wooden head," since he avoided making a decision on Vietnam; had he lived, he would presumably either have withdrawn from Vietnam or become another wooden head.) 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. Does the Stock Market prefer Democrats or Republicans? . He too continued the unquestioned view of need to stop Communist ideology. POLITICS The description of Kaiser Wilhelm was unsettling because his behavior is all too familiar. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. And that seems to adequately sum it up. 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." More than half of this study of "the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests" deals with the United States and the war in Vietnam. Her style traces an exact meridian line between intelligence and lucidity. ISBN # 0-345-30823-9. Marion Wiesel, by She accomplishes this with precision and wit, by taking readers on historical voyages through ancient Troy, then to Rome, where the decadent Catholics Popes provided fodder for the Protestant Reformation, and to the British Parliament during the time the U.K.’s American colonies were slipping away, before bringing readers to Washington, where the Vietnam quagmire deepened. Review of The March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam. I bought this because Eric Shanower, the author of "Age of Bronze," cited it as inspiration for his project to write a graphic novel of the Trojan War. It sheds light on historical events of the past and of man's propensity for folly that I otherwise might never have considered. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Barbara Tuchman is moved by John Adams’s claim that government is one institution that has not much improved over the history of humankind. One of her best books to date in my opinion. An exercise in historical interpretation such as this, tracing a single idea through a set of examples, is structured toward her weaknesses; and they are only too apparent. Start by marking “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam” as Want to Read: Error rating book. April 2011. Her writing leads the reader along smoothly, though at times I had to look up incidents and people she mentioned. | I find this curious indeed and have been wondering for some time why it is so. . . Barbara Tuchman is a first-rate writer and historian whose books I have much enjoyed. THE MARCH OF FOLLY: FROM TROY TO VIETNAM By Barbara W. Tuchman New York: Ballantine Books, 1984 447 pages ISBN # 0-345-30823-9. He had political reasons to need to show his willingness to fight Communism, especially after the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba. Well, as Tuchman outlines in her book, this is often not the case. Howard Zinn All of our articles are screened and edited for accuracy and impartiality. a moral [book] on the crimes and follies of governments and the misfortunes the governed suffer in consequence.” —The New York Times Book Review Magazine Subscribers (How to Find Your Reader Number). By Barbara W. Tuchman. The focus is on spectacular failures: the fall of Troy, the spectacular immorality of the Renaissance Popes, the failure of the English to retain its colony when the Americans wanted to leave, and finally, the spectacular stupidity of the US in Vietnam. It looks chiefly at four famous examples of folly, defined as a policy which 'must have been perceived as counter-productive in its own time, not merely by hindsight'; equally, 'a feasible alternative course of action must have been available'. I remember just about everything about Vietnam. Knopf. Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. Yet Kennedy knew this had to appear to be a Vietnamese war with the U.S. just providing some aid. GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES As a historian, her focus is to define the elements of folly using historical examples – building an anatomy of folly – and to prove that folly is an inescapable theme of the human condition. Elie Wiesel, by Fast, FREE delivery, video streaming, music, and much more. not merely in hindsight.”, “. that of King Rehoboam of Israel. GENERAL HISTORY In fact she points out: Indeed, it was because genuine religious and moral feeling was still present that dismay at the corruption of the clergy and especially of the Holy See was so acute and yearning for reform so strong . . We have gone to great lengths to make sure our content is easily accessible and approachable. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Her sweep of history anchored in detailed "stories" is incredible. Julius II 1503-13 – The warrior who succeeded in political aims and arts, | The world was a place that was getting better all the time. Tuchman's The March of Folly is spotty. Tuchman applies the concept of folly to historical "mistakes" with certain features in common: the policy taken was contrary to self-interest; it was not that of an individual (attributable to the individual's character), but that of a group; it was not the only policy available; and it was pursued despite forebodings that it was mistaken. All in all, an entertaining read and a unique perspective on historical periods where the events are well understood. Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2016. . it must have been perceived as counter-productive in its own time, I'd love to know what Barbara Tuchman, who wrote this in 1984, would think of the current U.S. political situation. Refresh and try again. A significant part of the blindness and unwillingness to act was to do with wealth. Catherine Temerson, by Elie Wiesel I remember just about everything about Vietnam, from the fall of Dien Bien Phu when I was still a child to the helicopter escape from the US Embassy in Saigon when I was a young woman raising two children and going to grad school. translated by Founded in 1996 by a group of portfolio managers, The Financial Pipeline is dedicated to providing financial knowledge and education to anyone and everyone with even a passing interest in Finance. RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006. Unlike so many histories, this is a book that can be enjoyed and understood outside of a library. 3000 Years of Folly and still we continue down the same road generation after generation inventing new forms of governance and yet falling into to same pit time and again... the one person we should ask to lead us is the one imbued with honesty not ambition! HISTORY, by In "The March of Folly," Barbara Tuchman attempts to analyze the whys and wherefores of government's apparent insistence on the pursuit of policy that is contrary to its self-interest. However, the paucity of examples makes it hard for the author to make broad-sweeping conclusions about folly that feel adequately supported. Or rather, the capacity of government to take the wrong decision. From Troy to Saigon. RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1979. Barbara Tuchman was a journalist before becoming a history author, and despite. Our motto, “financial information for the rest of us,” speaks for itself. March of Folly cleverly looks at periods in history where leaders have pursued policies against their own interest. Welcome back. by Barbara W. Tuchman. Tuchman calls this folly, hence the title. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages that interest you. 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. that of King Rehoboam of Israel. The author picks only a handful of events to analyze in detail.

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