The author explores one of the paradoxes of history: the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. She identifies the hallmark of folly in government from the dispersion of the ten tribes of Israel to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor: the self destructive act carried out despite the availability of a feasible alternative. Tuchman illuminates four decisive turning points in history and takes us into the lives of six Popes who by carrying the secular spirit of their age to excess not only brought the Holy See into disrepute but broke apart the unity of Christendom.
