Profiles in Folly

Profiles in Folly is a historical book written by Alan Axelrod that is composed of many true stories, beginning with the Trojan War in "The Decision To Let Danger In", and ending with Hurricane Katrina in "The Decision to Stop Short of Leadership". It is a follow-up book to Profiles in Audacity, and studies 35 of the worst mistakes in history. Each mistake is told in story form and is designed to teach the reader lessons through Axelrod's opinion.^[1]

Profiles in Folly

Front cover of Profiles In Folly
Author	Alan Axelrod
Language	English
Genre	Historical
Publisher	Sterling Publishing (Adult)
Publication date	May 6, 2008
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	358
ISBN	1-4027-4768-3
OCLC	173809076
Dewey Decimal	909 22
LC Class	D21.3 .A84 2008
Preceded by	Profiles In Audacity

Division of the book

The book is separated into six main parts,^[2] all focusing on different decisions leaders made in their actions of folly. These decisions are:

• The Decision to Gamble and Hope
• The Decision to Manipulate
• The Decision to Leap (Without Looking)
• The Decision to Retreat
• The Decision to Destroy
• and The Decision to Drift.

Within each of these decisions are short, historical stories such as "John F. Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs" under The Decision to Drift, or "The British Empire and Gandhi" under The Decision to Retreat. There are a total of thirty-five mini stories within the entire book.

The book focuses on mainly contemporary stories, but goes as far back as to the Trojan War (the very first story) under The Decision to Gamble and Hope.