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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Oh how I long for editors at publishers who would be more assertive in their roles, especially with prize-winning authors that are successful & notable.
This book was definitely illuminating. It told me much history, and provided an analytical viewpoint on it that was well-considered & supportable. (I need not share the viewpoint; but that’s not my point.)
But, for crying out loud - this book needed a strong developmental editor at a minimum, and likely even a line editor with a backbone. Tuchman jumped around with ideas & analysis in all of the main pivotal stories. I’m sure I read the same historical moment multiple times in each part, simply repeating for the sake of writing. And there are plenty of paragraph-long sentences in the book. I forget the point she’s trying to make within that single paragraph because there are soooo many conditionals. She drones on and on putting down pretty much all the information she has in her head about this these stories. And with no effective editorial pushback, this became an ego epic, not a work of of focused mastery.
Tighten it up, Barbara! This book would have been just as good at half it’s published length, and frankly not lost anything, IMO.
Had it been better more tightly edited I might’ve given this four stars. And honestly, this may be as much an indictment of the publisher as it is of Tuckerman. As it is, I can’t recommend it any higher than 3 stars simply because of the writing length.
This book was definitely illuminating. It told me much history, and provided an analytical viewpoint on it that was well-considered & supportable. (I need not share the viewpoint; but that’s not my point.)
But, for crying out loud - this book needed a strong developmental editor at a minimum, and likely even a line editor with a backbone. Tuchman jumped around with ideas & analysis in all of the main pivotal stories. I’m sure I read the same historical moment multiple times in each part, simply repeating for the sake of writing. And there are plenty of paragraph-long sentences in the book. I forget the point she’s trying to make within that single paragraph because there are soooo many conditionals. She drones on and on putting down pretty much all the information she has in her head about this these stories. And with no effective editorial pushback, this became an ego epic, not a work of of focused mastery.
Tighten it up, Barbara! This book would have been just as good at half it’s published length, and frankly not lost anything, IMO.
Had it been better more tightly edited I might’ve given this four stars. And honestly, this may be as much an indictment of the publisher as it is of Tuckerman. As it is, I can’t recommend it any higher than 3 stars simply because of the writing length.
Barbara Tuchman defines folly as actions by leaders flagrantly against the interests of the people they are leading. The actions must be sustained over time (not a momentary rush of blood to the head), involve several people (not just one deluded dictator), and be taken in the presence of visible opposition and viable alternatives.
The stories she tells of folly meeting her exacting criteria - the fall of Troy, the fall of Montezuma, the corruption of the Renaissance popes leading to the Protestant reformation, the loss of the American colonies by Britain, and the US debacle in Vietnam - are enlightening and sad.
She ends with a bracing prescription for avoiding folly. Have moral courage. Ask questions, and listen to the answers. Promote truth-telling. Admit error, even when you might lose personal prestige. Don't fight for principles you can't defend, especially when you'll lose more in the fight than you can possibly win from defending the principle. (The British government believed it had the right in principle to tax its colonial subjects. It did not, however, have the might to enforce taxation in the colonies. Furthermore, the British government knew that by trying to collect taxes from the American colonies they would lose trade revenue. The British had little to gain, and everything to lose.)
The stories she tells of folly meeting her exacting criteria - the fall of Troy, the fall of Montezuma, the corruption of the Renaissance popes leading to the Protestant reformation, the loss of the American colonies by Britain, and the US debacle in Vietnam - are enlightening and sad.
She ends with a bracing prescription for avoiding folly. Have moral courage. Ask questions, and listen to the answers. Promote truth-telling. Admit error, even when you might lose personal prestige. Don't fight for principles you can't defend, especially when you'll lose more in the fight than you can possibly win from defending the principle. (The British government believed it had the right in principle to tax its colonial subjects. It did not, however, have the might to enforce taxation in the colonies. Furthermore, the British government knew that by trying to collect taxes from the American colonies they would lose trade revenue. The British had little to gain, and everything to lose.)
We do too many things that are against their own best interests and never seem to learn their lesson from it.
Proposition of the book is not convincing. Case of popes is particularly weak as it is relying on an assumption that avoiding reformation was a real interest of the popes.
Another thought-provoking, well-written book by Tuchman. The book considers this question: Why do governments repeatedly and doggedly pursue policies that are contrary to their own interest? Tuchman calls this folly, hence the title. She uses the Trojan War, the Renaissance Popes Britain’s loss of the American colonies and the US’s Vietnam War to illustrate that pride, hubris, unchecked power, fear and outrage are often the drivers of poor policy and decision making. Some of my favorite quotes from this book show her thinking to be sharp and insightful:
“No one is as sure of his premise as the man who knows too little”
“He wanted affirmation rather than information.”
“Everything one has a right to do is not best to be done.”
“Prison does not silence ideas whose time has come. . . a fact that generally escapes despots who by nature are rulers of little wisdom.”
“Policy was not reconsidered because the governing group had no habit of purposeful consultation.”
“Folly is a child power.”
“Lazy preparation is the product of assumption.”
“The attitude was a sense of superiority so dense as to be impenetrable. A feeling of this kind leads to ignorance of the world and others because it suppresses curiosity.”
“No one is as sure of his premise as the man who knows too little”
“He wanted affirmation rather than information.”
“Everything one has a right to do is not best to be done.”
“Prison does not silence ideas whose time has come. . . a fact that generally escapes despots who by nature are rulers of little wisdom.”
“Policy was not reconsidered because the governing group had no habit of purposeful consultation.”
“Folly is a child power.”
“Lazy preparation is the product of assumption.”
“The attitude was a sense of superiority so dense as to be impenetrable. A feeling of this kind leads to ignorance of the world and others because it suppresses curiosity.”
Fools are often masters at rationalizing their actions, convincing themselves and others of the righteousness of their cause.
Starts off well, but soon stumbles, betrayed by the writer's unrestrained religiosity, in an enthusiastic rejection of the separation of church and state.
A difficult book. The section on the renaissance popes and the Brits losing America were excruciating name salads. Who was Tuchman's intended audience? "The abuse that precipitated the ultimate break was the commercialization of indulgences, and the place where the break came, as everyone knows, was at Wittenberg in northeastern Germany." Certainly not me. Where did the break come? FIIK. What break?
Sentences like this, "Discovery of classical antiquity with its focus on human capacity instead of on a ghostly Trinity was an exuberant experience that led to a passionate embrace of humanism, chiefly in Italy, where it was felt to be a return to ancient national glories." make for a LONG slog.
I did learn a fair bit despite the style, and her tendency to avoid a strictly linear recanting of the history, for which I'm grateful. However, I feel that reading this work for me was something of a march of folly.
Sentences like this, "Discovery of classical antiquity with its focus on human capacity instead of on a ghostly Trinity was an exuberant experience that led to a passionate embrace of humanism, chiefly in Italy, where it was felt to be a return to ancient national glories." make for a LONG slog.
I did learn a fair bit despite the style, and her tendency to avoid a strictly linear recanting of the history, for which I'm grateful. However, I feel that reading this work for me was something of a march of folly.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Annoying style; long sentences with multiple interjections detracted from the point. It was hard to maintain the thread of the sentences.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced