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

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