The March Of Folly Barbara Tuchman

Barbara Tuchman is an awarded story teller who certainly never disappointed her readers when she put pen onto the paper. The March of Folly is her finest book, and a piece that even those who do not like history can find enjoyable. She begins by asserting that, unlike science, government institutions have made very little progress over the last four millennia. She goes further to give these four reasons to support her claim; tyranny, over ambition, incompetence, and folly. Thus, in the book, she illustrates, through four historical examples, how folly has impeded progress in government institutions. Alongside this, the author describes folly as, “the pursuit of policy contrary to the self-interest of the constituency or state involved” (Tuchman 1). The events are covered in four chapters, and in each, she clearly illustrates a historical example to support her claim. Hence, this paper provides a book review of the 2011 standard history book that is 350 pages in length.
Tuchman explains that folly has three criteria: it must be

counterproductive, there has to be a feasible alternative, and the policy must be a group politics able to last more than one political lifetime. While the chapters are a fascinating read, none actually meets all the three criteria. Nonetheless, she describes these historical moments in great detail from one period to another. The chapters make the reader feel part of that historical period, and, as one transits to the next chapter, what is noticed is that despite advances in institutions like science, political leaders make the same retrogressive decisions. This, I think, justifies the title because folly is a constant in all the four periods illustrated in the book.
The first chapter is relatively shorter than the other three. It is about a well known story of the Trojans and the gift of a wooden horse from the Greeks. The Trojan leader Priam opened the gates to bring in the horse ignoring the warnings not to trust the Greeks and their gifts. Then, the blind priest Laocoon tells Trojan leadership that they cannot bring in the horse because it might be full of Greek soldiers. When he notices that there is a strong will to bring it in, he suggests that they should poke the horse with a spear to see if anybody cries. In the end, the city falls to Greek soldiers. This story creates the prototype of the follies that follow.
In the next chapter, she discusses papacy in the Renaissance period.

She examines 6 popes between 1470-1530 who she claims lead in a way similar to politicians. They lost touch with the common people both emotionally and intellectually. A little known cleric led the revolution challenging papacy that culminated in the reformation of the church. In that context, Barbara outlines that the popes were venal, immoral, and their power politics was calamitous. The faithful were distressed by their leadership, which ignored all the protests and the signs that a revolt was coming. In the end, the papal constituency lost almost half of its followers to Protestants. Barbara says that these people were driven by the greed and the urge to create a family empire that would outlive them. This chapter sums up the essence of folly in these major failures, lack of a fixed policy, over extravagance, and the illusion that their rule was

permanent.
The third chapter titled ‘The British Loss of North America’ describes how folly made the British lose valuable colonies in the United States. This chapter is incredibly good and not for a single moment does one feel the urge to put the book down. It outlines several political miscalculations and blunders by the British, which led the separation from their colonies. The key issue was the right of the Parliament to tax the colonies. In this case, Barbara described the folly as the pursuit of possession rather than principle, and the unworkable instead of the possible (Tuchman 159). She underlines that the economic cost of tax collection exceeded the profits from these taxes. Other reasons for discontent were the presence of 10000 British soldiers, absolute control of trade by Britain, the no-manufacturing policy within the colonies, and the prohibition of trading with any other partner except England. Despite the warning that these policies were breeding the urge for a rebellion, the British introduced new import duties, which led to the formation of the Boston Tea Party. United with purpose, the colonies staged a resistance that led to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. England, in response to losing North America, argued that it would continue to prosper and dominate the world over the next century; something that has been disapproved by history.
Finally, Tuchman examines the United States war in Vietnam. This is a more familiar case and is the most recent of the events she talks about in her book. However, it does not make it less powerful an example of folly. Being an anti-war protestor, one might expect her to take a more biased approach losing objectivity in the process. She clears any doubt by the quality of research and writing done in this chapter. The chapter begins with tracing the origin of the conflict, way back before the World War II, when the French were in control of Vietnam (Tuchman 335). After the war, they faced rebellion from the Vietnamese who received support from President Roosevelt. After the death of Roosevelt, the new President Truman changed to support the French policy. Tuchman argues that the folly was the view, by the President Truman, that Vietnam was part of the Communism in Southern Asia whose control was in Moscow, Russia. The French left the country by 1954, and by then, most leaders did not view Vietnam as a threat to the interest of the United States. Thus, after the election of Kennedy, the U.S. invaded Vietnam making it look like they were just providing aid. The motive behind their invasion, as described by Tuchman, was that the United States was fighting communism using the events in the Bay of Pigs in Cuba as a justification (Turse 15). The cost of the war was great because, in the end, about 45,000 soldiers had lost their lives and another 300,000 left wounded. Tuchman underlines that the U.S. was not justified to go to war and had underestimated the level of rebellion and resolve they would receive from their purported enemy.
The events in Tuchman’s book make the reader think of other cases of human folly experienced, especially in the 21st century. One is able to connect these events with those that happen in the book and notice that little change has occurred in government institutions. Moreover, the book is well written and events are arranged in a chronological order making it simple and easy to follow. It is a book I would highly recommend to lovers of history, and even those who think history is dull will definitely find it interesting.