Bookmark: Barbara Tuchman's "The March of Folly"

On this week's Bookmark, Umapagan Ampikaipakan is joined by Kam Raslan to discuss historian Barbara Tuchman's "The March of Folly", which tackles one of the most compelling paradoxes of history: the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.

Tuchman details four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly in government - the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance Popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain's George III, and the United States' persistent folly in Vietnam.