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victoremartin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
4.75
Incredibly insightful and wildly interesting personal history of the Middle Ages. Tuchman does an effective job building a world that seems foreign to the modern reader. Although it takes a while to build Enguerrand’s story, it becomes compelling to see this lifetime of adventure and misadventure guided by forces much larger than the self.
ahanyok's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Not as much about the plague as I'd have liked
sam2085's review against another edition
4.0
A fantastic read that paints a nearly complete picture of life in the time of plague. Tuchman delves deep into the society, including religious, political, cultural, and military aspects, of Fourteenth Century Europe, especially France. The reader learns the motivations of people at every class. Particularly illuminating are the passages that provide rare peaks into the minds of the peasants, working class, lower middle class, and bourgeoise. At least some individuals attempted to rectify the problems posed by a warrior class that robbed the people.
A Distant Mirror is an excellent mixture of chronology, history, and lessons applicable to humanity regardless of time and place.
A Distant Mirror is an excellent mixture of chronology, history, and lessons applicable to humanity regardless of time and place.
takumo_n's review against another edition
5.0
An unbelievably readable overview of the 14th century, focusing on The Hundred Year War between France and England, and putting the remakable life of a noble Enguerrand de Coucy who lived for most of the century and was involved in the most important events.
The first two chapters gives you a look at the political, economical and cultural dichotomy between the first and second state and the commons.
From ownership of land and revenues the noble derived the right to excercise authority over all non-nobles of his territory except the clergy and except merchants who were citizens of a free town.
Explains the excesses and corruption of the church, having the element of fear,
What the Church offered was salvation, which could be reached only through the rituals of the established Church and by permission and aid of its ordained priests. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus. (No salvation outside the Church) was the rule.
High taxation to pay for war, or noble's marriages and parties and having to pay the Church for pardons ended a lot of people in poverty, creating one of the first glimpses of what was to come.
The poverty movements grew out of essence of Christian doctrine: renunciation of the material world - the idea that made the great break with the classical age.
And when there was too much protest and the nobility or the Church didn't want to admit how much they were exploiting the people there is always the Jews to blame, being seen as enemies of their religion and way of life, owning the debt of some nobles and burgeois and not wanting to pay those loans they put the desperation of the commons against them.
If the Jews were unholy, then killing and looting them was holy work.
A psichological hypothesis of why people were the way they were. Argumenting the lack of connection in the first six years of a child, because their mortality was so high and it was seen as a waste to create a loving connection in such uncertainties. From iconographic evidence, where mothers are seen bored and looking anywhere else but their child, and poems filled with nihilism, Tuchman came to this conclusion.
Possibly the relative emotional blankness of a medieval infancy may account for the casual attitude toward life and suffering of the medieval man.
Explains how nobles were educated.
Education, so far as it would have reached Enguerrand, was based on the seven "liberal arts": Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music. Medicine, though not one of the liberal arts, was analogous to Music because its object was the harmony of the human body.
From the fourth chapter onward starts the ascend of Enguerrand and shows you how misery ridden was this century, from endless wars, corruption of the Church and nobility, incompetent Monarchs and generals in battle, the always interesting Black Death, different rebellions from the commons, the ransom of important people that were kidnapped, the married of some monarch to another to create a false sense of peace (almost never worked, or the marriage was never concluded), the unbelievable Schism were a Pope was chosen by Council in Rome and the other just claimed to be the Pope from France creating more problems and corruption, companies of unemployed soldiers that pillaged villages and raped women, sometimes they were compatriots disenchanted with their country.
"A Distant Mirror" for the author was a reflection of the 60s in the United States, and is even more clear-cut seeing it from these last few year that we had and are having.
The first two chapters gives you a look at the political, economical and cultural dichotomy between the first and second state and the commons.
From ownership of land and revenues the noble derived the right to excercise authority over all non-nobles of his territory except the clergy and except merchants who were citizens of a free town.
Explains the excesses and corruption of the church, having the element of fear,
What the Church offered was salvation, which could be reached only through the rituals of the established Church and by permission and aid of its ordained priests. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus. (No salvation outside the Church) was the rule.
High taxation to pay for war, or noble's marriages and parties and having to pay the Church for pardons ended a lot of people in poverty, creating one of the first glimpses of what was to come.
The poverty movements grew out of essence of Christian doctrine: renunciation of the material world - the idea that made the great break with the classical age.
And when there was too much protest and the nobility or the Church didn't want to admit how much they were exploiting the people there is always the Jews to blame, being seen as enemies of their religion and way of life, owning the debt of some nobles and burgeois and not wanting to pay those loans they put the desperation of the commons against them.
If the Jews were unholy, then killing and looting them was holy work.
A psichological hypothesis of why people were the way they were. Argumenting the lack of connection in the first six years of a child, because their mortality was so high and it was seen as a waste to create a loving connection in such uncertainties. From iconographic evidence, where mothers are seen bored and looking anywhere else but their child, and poems filled with nihilism, Tuchman came to this conclusion.
Possibly the relative emotional blankness of a medieval infancy may account for the casual attitude toward life and suffering of the medieval man.
Explains how nobles were educated.
Education, so far as it would have reached Enguerrand, was based on the seven "liberal arts": Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music. Medicine, though not one of the liberal arts, was analogous to Music because its object was the harmony of the human body.
From the fourth chapter onward starts the ascend of Enguerrand and shows you how misery ridden was this century, from endless wars, corruption of the Church and nobility, incompetent Monarchs and generals in battle, the always interesting Black Death, different rebellions from the commons, the ransom of important people that were kidnapped, the married of some monarch to another to create a false sense of peace (almost never worked, or the marriage was never concluded), the unbelievable Schism were a Pope was chosen by Council in Rome and the other just claimed to be the Pope from France creating more problems and corruption, companies of unemployed soldiers that pillaged villages and raped women, sometimes they were compatriots disenchanted with their country.
"A Distant Mirror" for the author was a reflection of the 60s in the United States, and is even more clear-cut seeing it from these last few year that we had and are having.
poppymonster's review against another edition
5.0
This damn book was a ride. I’ve been bothering friends and family with little tidbits that I found fascinating and spent a lot of time pondering the impacts of decisions made so long ago on the world we live in now.
I was, frankly, shocked by the agnostic-leaning writings of the author and the ability she had to draw such an unflattering picture of Christianity. I loved it. I loved that she was so fearless in describing the failings of the religion as a whole and that she threw in the perception of Turkish Muslims in the 14th century of Christianity being a polytheistic religion (although I would have liked MORE of their POV, I understand why the author chose not to focus on that empire). My personal religious issues were triggered frequently by the discourse, but I think it still gave me a valuable point of view.
I appreciated the forward in this book that explains why she chose Engeurrand de Coucy’s life to illuminate the century. I felt she was a bit too kind in describing his character and motivations at times, but he was a good choice.
Also, I didn’t need another reason to hate General Ludendorff (German army commander WW1), but fuck that guy for destroying the castle just because someone asked him not to.
Triggers: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK if you have any triggers. People die in every imaginable way and everything horrible that happens in modern war, with the exception of modern weaponry induced horrors, happened in this century. As far as I remember, there were not any detailed descriptions of SA, but it was touched on.
I was, frankly, shocked by the agnostic-leaning writings of the author and the ability she had to draw such an unflattering picture of Christianity. I loved it. I loved that she was so fearless in describing the failings of the religion as a whole and that she threw in the perception of Turkish Muslims in the 14th century of Christianity being a polytheistic religion (although I would have liked MORE of their POV, I understand why the author chose not to focus on that empire). My personal religious issues were triggered frequently by the discourse, but I think it still gave me a valuable point of view.
I appreciated the forward in this book that explains why she chose Engeurrand de Coucy’s life to illuminate the century. I felt she was a bit too kind in describing his character and motivations at times, but he was a good choice.
Also, I didn’t need another reason to hate General Ludendorff (German army commander WW1), but fuck that guy for destroying the castle just because someone asked him not to.
Triggers: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK if you have any triggers. People die in every imaginable way and everything horrible that happens in modern war, with the exception of modern weaponry induced horrors, happened in this century. As far as I remember, there were not any detailed descriptions of SA, but it was touched on.
ethanmmc's review against another edition
dark
informative
slow-paced
4.0
This is very readable and mostly interesting, but it gets 4 stars mostly on the strength of its scope. A whole lot of ground (in a medium sized slice of Europe) is covered.
Key take away: the 14th century SUCKED.
Key take away: the 14th century SUCKED.