Using the same engrossing anecdotal format that has proved so popular in Profiles in Audacity, Alan Axelrod now turns to the dark side of audacious decision-making: those choices that, in retrospect, were shockingly wrongheaded.
Although Axelrod investigates some dumb decisions by stupid people and some evil decisions by evil people, the overwhelming majority of these decisions were made by good, smart people whose poor judgment produced disastrous, often irreversible results.
The 35 compelling and often poignant stories, which range from ancient times to today, include: The Trojan Horse; the Children’s Crusade; the sailing of the Titanic, and the false belief that it just couldn’t sink; Edward Bernays’s 1929 campaign to recruit women smokers; Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis; Ken Lay’s deception with Enron; and even the choice to create a “New Coke” and fix what wasn’t broke. As with Profiles in Audacity, the deftly drawn vignettes will pique interest, satisfy curiosity, give pleasure, and present valuable lessons. And in addition to offering the same insightful analysis of the decision-making process, Folly also includes objective post-mortems that explain what went wrong and why. These are cautionary tales - albeit with exquisite twists ranging from acerbic to horrific.
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FILE LIST
Filename
Size
Profiles in Folly - 001 - The Trojans and the Trojan Horse.mp3
7.9 MB
Profiles in Folly - 002 - George Armstrong Custer and the Little Bighorn.mp3
9.9 MB
Profiles in Folly - 003 - André Maginot and His Line.mp3
6.2 MB
Profiles in Folly - 004 - Unsinkability and the Titanic.mp3
9.6 MB
Profiles in Folly - 005 - Isoroku Yamamoto and Pearl Harbor.mp3
15.3 MB
Profiles in Folly - 006 - NASA and the Space Shuttles.mp3
13.7 MB
Profiles in Folly - 007 - William McKinley, the USS Main and the Spanish-American War.mp3
12.3 MB
Profiles in Folly - 008 - Captain Alfred Dreyfus and the Honor of France.mp3
8.3 MB
Profiles in Folly - 009 - Edward Bernays and the Campaign to Recruit Women Smokers.mp3
11.7 MB
Profiles in Folly - 010 - Richard M. Nixon and Watergate.mp3
9 MB
Profiles in Folly - 011 - Metropolitan Edison and Three Mile Island.mp3
8.4 MB
Profiles in Folly - 012 - Ken Lay and Enron.mp3
7.6 MB
Profiles in Folly - 013 - Dick Cheney and the Iraq War.mp3
7.6 MB
Profiles in Folly - 014 - King George III and the American Revolution.mp3
14.5 MB
Profiles in Folly - 015 - The War Hawks and the War of 1812.mp3
8.7 MB
Profiles in Folly - 016 - John C. Calhoun and Nullification.mp3
6.5 MB
Profiles in Folly - 017 - Russell, Majors, and Waddell and the Pony Express.mp3
7.8 MB
Profiles in Folly - 018 - Count Leopold von Berchtold and His Ultimatum.mp3
9.2 MB
Profiles in Folly - 019 - Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and Dred Scott.mp3
5.7 MB
Profiles in Folly - 020 - Thomas Edison and the Fight Against Alternating Current.mp3
6.8 MB
Profiles in Folly - 021 - The Wright Brothers and the Wing Warping Lawsuits.mp3
7 MB
Profiles in Folly - 022 - Alfred P. Sloan and Planned Obsolescence.mp3
5.4 MB
Profiles in Folly - 023 - Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler.mp3
6.1 MB
Profiles in Folly - 024 - The British Empire and Gandhi.mp3
6.1 MB
Profiles in Folly - 025 - Governor William Kieft and the Slaughter of the Innocents.mp3
7.4 MB
Profiles in Folly - 026 - Antonio López de Santa Anna and the Alamo.mp3
15.2 MB
Profiles in Folly - 027 - Patriotism and Poison Gas.mp3
5.3 MB
Profiles in Folly - 028 - Roberto Goizueta and the New Coke.mp3
6.8 MB
Profiles in Folly - 029 - James Buchanan and the Secession.mp3
8.9 MB
Profiles in Folly - 030 - Geaorge Gordon Meade and Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of the Crater.mp3
17.8 MB
Profiles in Folly - 031 - Rasputin and the Russian Royals.mp3
9.3 MB
Profiles in Folly - 032 - Ford Motor Company and the Edsel.mp3
9.9 MB
Profiles in Folly - 033 - John F. Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs.mp3
7.6 MB
Profiles in Folly - 034 - Tonkin Gulf, Persin Gulf.mp3
11.2 MB
Profiles in Folly - 035 - George W. Bush and Hurricane Katrina.mp3