2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I continue to be utterly mystified. [View all]The_Commonist
(2,518 posts)A great-grand niece, or something.
Ms. Tuchman's most famous book is "The Guns of August" which is about World War 1.
When I met my friend, and she somehow mentioned her relationship to Ms. Tuchman, I said "Oh, I loved her book 'The March of Folly!'" (I think she was expecting me to mention The Guns of August)
From Amazon:
"Barbara Tuchman defines folly as "Pursuit of Policy Contrary to Self-Interest." In THE MARCH OF FOLLY, Tuchman examines 4 conflicts: The Trojan Horse, The Protestant Secession, (King George's response to)The American Revolution, and The American War in Vietnam. In each example an alternative course of action was available, the actions were endorsed by a group, not just an individual leader, and the actions were perceived as counter productive in their own time..."
History will show the Iraq War to the 5th item for this list.