Barbara Tuchman

Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989) was a well known American historian. Her books have enjoyed broad appeal, and her books, especially The March of Folly, The Guns of August and The Zimmermann Telegram contain so many real life tropes, mostly of the idiotic kind, that sorting them out requires a study of its own. (Since this is a new article, I ask whomever reads this to polish and give examples, including deleting these parentheses.)