March Of Folly: From Troy To Vietnam Essay

In her book ”The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam” Barbara Tuchman examines instances of folly throughout history. Tuchman begins her book by explaining John Adams position on the lack of advances in government over the last three or four thousand years. She begins to explain several factors for why she believes this to be true. One of these factors is follies. In order to qualify as a folly, according to Tuchman the incident must be completely contrary to the organization or governments own self-interest. This is a curious way to look at history. It is a departure from the norm, and takes the reader on a journey that explores the causes and outcomes of major historical events from a different perspective. I am sure everyone can look back in their own personal history and find a moment in which they performed an act that violates their own self-interest, that is what makes the book such an easy read. It is often difficult for a historian to capture the imagination of the average reader so early in a book. Tuchman does this through explaining what most would consider failures. I found this to be particularly interesting …show more content…
In the final folly ,Tuchman describes the American involvement in the Vietnam War. Whether or not this was a folly for the United States is debatable and Tuchman’s research appears to be very respectable. I just felt that she didn’t remain object able on this subject. In her previous follies, major events happened due to the folly. Governments or religions were formed or changed where as she describes the American involvement from a perspective of not supporting the war. Several historians have argued against the Vietnam war and that it was counterproductive to the United States self-interest. I just felt like there were other instances of folly she could have used that would have better described this and not come out seeming like war