The March of Folly by Barbara W. Tuchman

First published: 1984

Type of work: History

Time of work: The Renaissance, the late eighteenth century, and the 1960’s

Locale: Europe, the American colonies, and Vietnam

Principal Personages:

• Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation
• Clement VII, an unpopular pope of the Renaissance
• George III, the king of England during the American Revolution
• Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam during the civil war

Form and Content

Tracing political self-interest across the ages, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam offers an alternative view for a woman’s understanding of Western world government. Barbara Tuchman employs the legend of the wooden horse as a paradigm to interpret three points in history (late fifteenth century through late twentieth century) when political leaders were duped into blundering badly at the expense of the masses. Tuchman’s scholarly trek into the masculine domain of political power considers a woman’s historical perspective of how and why world leaders keep repeating the moral mistakes that plague humanity. Folly is difficult to discern, says Tuchman, because people have a tendency to bury trauma when no one wants to admit fault. Then, too, the collective psyche of a nation neglects coming to grips with reason when folly robs political leaders of rational choices and mismanagement follows those individuals with the power to dupe the masses. Therefore, political self-interest has devastating effects on humanity, having become the sacred cow that pushes world leaders toward a pattern of policy that is contrary to common sense. If military prowess is the heart of tyranny, then moral ineptitude is the soul of folly, claims Tuchman, and that ineptitude remains the mindless plaything of deceitful leaders who ignore alternative answers for constructive change.

The book’s introductory chapters examine a multitude of occasions of faulty policy making throughout history, interpreting the wooden horse as the prototype for mixing legend and historical fact (“however faint and far away and all but forgotten,” says Tuchman, who claims that moral issues involving political and economic blunders cannot be separated from the mythical and religious mores that drive a nation’s soul).

Unique in Tuchman’s introduction is Montezuma’s superstitious delusion in revealing to Cortez and his band the extensive wealth of the Aztecs, which act brought about the political and economic collapse of his people. He possibly had in mind the notion that Cortez was the resurrected god Quetzalcoatl, says Tuchman. Thus, in offering trays of gold to the Spaniards, Montezuma was duped into believing that they would leave peacefully. In turn, the conquistadors could only gaze upon the gold and desire more of it, a most natural human reaction to wealth. The fall of the Aztec nation hinged on one man’s failure to act responsibly in the face of aversion—folly in order to save face.

The remaining chapters of The March of Folly involve three pivotal points: the Papal forfeiture to the Protestant Reformation, the British loss of America, and America’s political demise in Vietnam. Tuchman, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, then uses the epilogue to conclude that the idea that humanity can eradicate folly seems to be mistaken, because common people cannot expect an end to political shenanigans. Tuchman handles folly with wit and insight and covers considerable ground in 447 pages. Her fifty-seven-page reference notes and index sections are extensive and scholarly, showing her penchant for detail and precision. She writes in a popular style that appeals to the layperson, and the book, like her chronicle A Distant Mirror (1978), sheds light on peoples, places, and events that are dear to readers, especially average citizens whose rulers are preoccupied with ambition and power.

Context

A number-one best-seller, The March of Folly explores blunders in history that attract people who desire to learn the patterns of misgovernment. Tuchman claims that moral failure culminates in mass suffering and states that asking tough moral questions is the ultimate test of moral courage. Government needs people who are willing to speak up, she says, for protection from stupidity in policy making. Thus, one should not be blind to discontent when the rejection of reason restricts freedom of choice and folly’s illogical aftermath leads policy makers into oft-repeated errors. On the contrary, women such as Cassandra, whose rational alternative was to have the wooden horse searched for soldiers, must assume the moral responsibility to keep questioning inept policy making, since prototypes such as Cassandra’s father Priam, Clement VII, and King George III are forever being duped. Bad policy making exposes humanity to disaster.

Folly will continue as long as image makers lust for power and reject reason. The March of Folly encourages women to study the roots of Western civilization in order to compare the temptations that follow moral failure in society. Tuchman appeals to all women. Her wit and penetrating insight challenge them to tap their moral courage, learn from experience, and reverse a persistence in error that leads to misgovernment.

Bibliography

Emerson, Gloria. Winners and Losers. New York: Random House, 1976. A former foreign correspondent for The New York Times, Emerson reflects on the cultural and ethnic differences that gave rise to the ideological clashes the West faced in Indochina. Her anecdotal approach to history includes the use of taped interviews and diary accounts, including those of former prisoners of war. Emerson shows an awareness of the common person’s feelings and fears regarding the Indochinese wars.

FitzGerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972. A Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the political and cultural history of Vietnam. The rift between Vietnamese culture and the American sense of progress is explored in terms of the West’s misunderstanding of the National Liberation Front. Has an index and a bibliography.

Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. Review of The March of Folly. The New York Times, March 7, 1984, p. C21. A critical review centered on Tuchman’s inability to weave a story line around four separate incidents concerning folly into a cohesive whole. Human folly is too complex, according to the author, to be discussed in terms of unrelated episodes in history. Such generalizations are superficial.

Tilly, Charles. Review of The March of Folly. American Historical Review 90 (April, 1985): 386-387. A critical review treating the work as tautological and unhistorical yet entertaining. Tilly says that Tuchman lacks variety in the four historical accounts, which makes for repetitive tales of rejection of reason, showing nothing more than disagreement with people’s words and actions.

Tuchman, Barbara W. Practicing History: Selected Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. A collection of articles and lectures by Tuchman concerning the writing of history. Offers important insights into her views as a historian.