The March of Folly

From Troy to Vietnam

By: Barbara W. Tuchman

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

In The March of Folly, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning historian Barbara Tuchman tackles the pervasive presence of folly in governments through the ages. Defining folly as the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives, Tuchman details four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly in government: 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' persistent folly in Vietnam.

The March of Folly brings the people, places, and events of history magnificently alive for today's listener.

©1984 Barbara Tuchman (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Among contemporary historians, Barbara Tuchman stands supreme." ( Times of London)
"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, London)

This book is a true classic of history

Humankind’s failing attempts to build stable and effective governing structures is detailed with skill and touch of humor. Tuchman is a true giant in historical writing, and this book is one of her best. Using examples from classical Greece, the Catholic papacy, and up to the Vietnam War, she proves Lord Acton’s observation, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

For History Lovers

I was recommended this book for the Vietnam portion. This book will provide a greater understanding for the history behind why we were there. Great for history buffs.

Excellent

Lovely and compressive book on an important and unexamined topic. Read beautifully by McCaddon. Highly recommended.

USA Citizen required reading

Every American citizen should read, listen to this book. It sheds light on why governments throughout history react to current affairs and perpetuate wars and disputes. Citizens need to be educated and aware of human rhetoric and behaviors in order to bring peace and understanding to our world. Let us read, study and ponder in order to bring our world to acceptance of coexisting with diversity.

interesting conception, uninteresting execution.

I have to admit, Tuchman is one of my favourite historians and thus this book from her comes as a disappointment. The title suggested, a comprehensive history of folly committed by governments everywhere and of all times, but what we got is thematically divided episodes with superficial analysis on each theme. The theme was unequally distributed, one would think Renaissance papacy (a few hundred years in scope) would deserve more space than Vietnam War (20 years from French phase) but Vietnam War comprised one and half of the book, making Spanish conquest, War of Independent and Papal Monarchy de facto salad dressing.

The Insightful Ms. Tuchman

This is a wonderful foray into varying bits of history with a sharp, well thought out theme. It is easy to be an armchair quarterback with 20-20 hindsight, criticizing leaders and governments for their failures and mistakes, but Tuchman gives us a clear target: leaders who had every bit of information and advice they needed at their disposal to change course, but could not bring themselves to do so. Tuchman never strays from her theme and gives an invaluable lesson for those who can find it in themselves to be introspective. This should be required reading for any modern leader.

As with any Tuchman book, her writing is brilliant; articulate, witty, and kept me captivated throughout.

Wanda McCaddon's reading is superb, capturing Tuchman's wonderful writing style perfectly - at least as perfectly as an Brit can capture an American's "voice".

Skip Intro and Epilogue, Enjoy the Yummy Center

There were magnificent aspects of this book and equally terrible ones.

First, the book was published in 1984 - 27 years prior to my reading it. The content of the book - the dissection of epic failures of leadership in history - is still as compelling as ever. For example, upon listening to the account of King Montezuma's approach to marauding Spaniards drew an immediate parallel to me of the way in which US President Obama has deigned to handle disputes with Congressional Republicans who've publicly stated their primary goal as being the destruction of the President at all costs.

Many lessons in history are prescient and almost all of Ms. Tuchman's eclectic selection of stories (I don't understand why Troy is included though, as it's, as the author essentially admits, more mythology than history) from history are indeed excellent studies for all leaders - regardless of whether leading in politics, business, local groups, classrooms.

Second, the detail of the accounts are scrupulously laid out and points are painstakingly substantiated. Of course, audio books don't have the luxury of a bibliography to review, but for a few reasons, I'm convinced Ms. Tuchman's accuracy is beyond reproach.

On the down side, the narrator is utterly infuriating. I'm in the US and the narrator is from the UK. I've worked with folks from and have been to the UK. I've always found the Queen's English to be quite pleasant. But until this narrator, I've never spoken with any British person who spoke just like Elmer Fudd.

Maybe I'm just too intolerant, but "heawing of the tehwwible results of" this speech affect forced me to take this book only in small doses. And at 17+ hours, it made the consumption of the work a long and sometimes painful process.

Last, the book's theme. The introduction's torturous defining of "folly" and the conclusion's ham-fisted effort to mash these tales of failed leadership (which IS it's actual theme) together under that definition is awkward at best.

The Not Too Long March

Great listen. Very informative but can come off as too much history lesson and not enough relation to the main point. Just wanted a little more in the way of author commentary. Still very worthwhile.

Interesting and perspective broadening

I picked this up as an intro to history.
It did a great job at keeping me interested and engaged all the way through. The March of Folly is a great book to learn about the errors of leaders with great unchecked power.

lot of information packed in

out of the 4 scenarios the book covers American revolution and Vietnam war the most. from a historical detail perspective it's great. this was one of the books I had to re listen to some parts over and over because the way it's written is complex and packs a lot of information .