Thom reviewed The march of folly by Barbara W. Tuchman
Review of 'The march of folly' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Good topic, but a little dry, fairly dense, and not as good as [b:The Guns of August|11366|The Guns of August|Barbara W. Tuchman|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1431760956s/11366.jpg|1884932]. The author looks at the causes of four historical "folly" events - the Trojan Horse, 6 corrupt Renaissance Popes (leading to the Reformation and a sack of Rome), the lead-up to the American revolution (primarily from the British side), and finally French and American involvement in Vietnam and SE Asia.
These follies are chosen because viable alternatives were available and popularly supported, and the decisions were taken by groups instead of individuals. Her point is that group think and a focus on assumptions despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary leads to a reinforcing spiral of wrong choices. Her hope is that wisdom among leaders could overcome these choices.
Regardless of whether one could argue the alternatives convincingly, I found the topics a little dry and the text dense …
Good topic, but a little dry, fairly dense, and not as good as [b:The Guns of August|11366|The Guns of August|Barbara W. Tuchman|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1431760956s/11366.jpg|1884932]. The author looks at the causes of four historical "folly" events - the Trojan Horse, 6 corrupt Renaissance Popes (leading to the Reformation and a sack of Rome), the lead-up to the American revolution (primarily from the British side), and finally French and American involvement in Vietnam and SE Asia.
These follies are chosen because viable alternatives were available and popularly supported, and the decisions were taken by groups instead of individuals. Her point is that group think and a focus on assumptions despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary leads to a reinforcing spiral of wrong choices. Her hope is that wisdom among leaders could overcome these choices.
Regardless of whether one could argue the alternatives convincingly, I found the topics a little dry and the text dense at times. A lot of the information was new to me, and well presented, there was just a lot of it (including a very complete bibliography). Perhaps more than necessary to make the case for folly. Her lesson is applicable down to the school board or family level also, though we have fewer trusted advisors.