A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
"Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . A great book, in a great historical tradition." CommentaryThe 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of...
show more
"Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . A great book, in a great historical tradition." CommentaryThe 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of war, fear and the Plague. Barbara Tuchman anatomizes the century, revealing both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived.
show less
Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780345349576 (0345349571)
ASIN: 345349571
Publish date: July 12th 1987
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Pages no: 677
Edition language: English
Category:
Classics,
Non Fiction,
Biography,
History,
Literature,
Cultural,
Historical Fiction,
Medieval,
War,
France,
European History,
World History,
14th Century
Well, that was a long haul, but I don't regret the journey. This is basically an overview of France, England, and other parts of Europe in the 14th century as it follows the ancestors and life of Enguerrand VI de Coucy. It's not exactly a biography, but it uses de Coucy's life to provide human int...
Conflict is the engine of every narrative, but it is the engine of every individual life, every culture, and every age. Because conflict takes up so much of our time and energy, we often look to the past, the conflicts of which all have-- or at least appear to have-- cemented resolutions chronicled ...
I see most people seem to rate this book very highly. I don't and found the book a tough listen. I give the author kudos for presenting one of the best peeks into the start of the Renaissance at least from a mostly French perspective. A historian sometimes needs to tell a story in addition to presen...
I first gave this massive doorstop book a try in my teens, and the immense detail, I think, is what defeated me. I remember finding it dry and tedious (a complaint echoed in the few negative reviews.) The book's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness--its density. This is an intensely rich ...
Another Middle Ages history book that people dig.
Log in with Facebook 
