Profiles in Folly

April 28, 2008
Prolific author Axelrod (Elizabeth I, CEO, The Real History of World War II) has an engaging writing style and a good eye for telling incidents, making his 35 "cautionary tales" of bad decisions (and their deciders) illuminating and interesting. Covering a swath of history from 1250 B.C. to 2005, Axelrod begins with the Trojan Horse ("The Decision to Let Danger In") and ends with President Bush and Hurricane Katrina ("The Decision to Stop Short of Leadership"). Axelrod ends each story with an admonition; the Trojan War illustrates "wars whose cost vastly outweighs the original cause and the potential gain," and Katrina exposes the President as "a man content to vacation in the eye of a storm." This is popular, broad brush-stroke history, and Axelrod's opinions sometimes overreach, but the book is entertaining and occasionally surprising (as in the Japanese preparation for the assault on Peal Harbor). Axelrod helpfully includes a list of recommended reading for each incident covered.

July 15, 2008
Prolific author Axelrod follows up his "Profiles in Audacity: Great Decisions and How They Were Made" with this study of 35 of the greatest mistakes in history. The work is divided thematically into six parts (e.g., "Decision To Gamble and Hope," Decision To Manipulate"), each containing vignettes designed, as Axelrod says, to "pique interest, satisfy curiosity [and] teach." The topics span the course of history as well as the globe and include a mixture of the usual suspects, with some perhaps less predictable. For example, there is "New Coke," as well as Watergate, the Iraq War, the Romanovs and Rasputin, the Dreyfus affair, and Ford's Edsel. Often a writer on leadership and management, Axelrod looks at these events as resulting from decisions made by particular people, so he takes into account personalities and character flaws while focusing less on the broader historical context. He warns readers that he makes no claim to being objective in analyzing the events. The result is less a history book than a look backward at leadership and decision making. Still, the book serves as a good introduction to a broad range of historical events. Importantly, Axelrod has included a list of further readings. Recommended for high school and public libraries.Lisa A. Ennis, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib., Lister Hill

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