The March of Folly

Barbara W. Tuchman examines a recurring paradox of history: governments pursuing policies contrary to their own interests even when workable alternatives exist. She develops the theme through four case studies: the Trojans taking the Greek horse into their city, the Renaissance popes who failed to deal with the forces that led to the Protestant Reformation, the policies toward the American colonies that cost George III's Britain its colonies, and the American mishandling of the war in Vietnam. Vietnam fills more than half the book, and the other three cases are shorter. Tuchman also draws on other examples, ranging from Pearl Harbor to Montezuma giving up his empire in 1520. Knopf published it in 1984.

James Mattis included it on the list of favorite books in an appendix to Call Sign Chaos.