I don’t care much for the focal point of the book – the study of governments that pursue policy contrary to their own interests – and I didn’t think Barbara Tuchmann made a great case for why this is a useful angle from which to look at the history of governments. However she does a great job at making the four examples she uses to illustrate the point into compelling narratives. The story of the Vietnam, which is by far the longest section, is particularly well done. Although the book is at time a bit superficial in terms of history, there’s a lot of interesting details that can serve as jumping-off points for deeper reading elsewhere.