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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
"For mankind is ever the same and nothing is lost out of nature, though everything is altered."
In the 1300s one sees the Black Plague, which takes out just under one third of Europe over three years (followed by rebounds years afterward), as well as the hundred years war driven largely by chivalric, honor-bound absurdities that are funded by taxes raised from peasants who have nothing to gain (and never did) and everything to lose (and often did) from these conflicts.
Tuchman also correctly identifies the weakening of the church and papacy, the uprisings of workers unions, warring peoples, and the shift from feudalism to capitalism in this book. I don't think any of this is possible without the the Black Plague, as there was, as Tuchman agrees, a cheapening of human life in the eyes of society.
One can only wait to see what fun developments follow this epidemic, of course this time 'round combined with mass migrations due to climate change.
In the 1300s one sees the Black Plague, which takes out just under one third of Europe over three years (followed by rebounds years afterward), as well as the hundred years war driven largely by chivalric, honor-bound absurdities that are funded by taxes raised from peasants who have nothing to gain (and never did) and everything to lose (and often did) from these conflicts.
Tuchman also correctly identifies the weakening of the church and papacy, the uprisings of workers unions, warring peoples, and the shift from feudalism to capitalism in this book. I don't think any of this is possible without the the Black Plague, as there was, as Tuchman agrees, a cheapening of human life in the eyes of society.
One can only wait to see what fun developments follow this epidemic, of course this time 'round combined with mass migrations due to climate change.
informative
slow-paced
Nothing beats wrapping up a plague narrative at the start of a pandemic.
I don't know which stood out to me more: Barbara Tuchman's fantastic prose style, or the absolute insanity that made up the European 14th Century.
My new catchphrase is, "At least it's not the 14th century!" because damn: that shit was WACK. The Black Death, the 100 Years War, famine, flood, a mini ice age, constant brigandage, and a papal schism are only some of the more outstanding disasters of the time. Tuchman apparently started out wondering how the plague affected the population at the time, but realized there was so much terrible awfulness going on in the 1300s, she couldn't isolate the fallout of the plague from everything else.
She made an excellent choice in having a central figure to work from, and picked Enguerrand VII de Coucy, who lived through much of the insanity, and died just before the century's end. He provided an anchor for the narrative, and as nobles of the time go, was somewhat less despicable than average.
This is a very engaging, well-written book, and a good one to read in troubled times, because it reminds us: things could be worse. Much, much worse.
My new catchphrase is, "At least it's not the 14th century!" because damn: that shit was WACK. The Black Death, the 100 Years War, famine, flood, a mini ice age, constant brigandage, and a papal schism are only some of the more outstanding disasters of the time. Tuchman apparently started out wondering how the plague affected the population at the time, but realized there was so much terrible awfulness going on in the 1300s, she couldn't isolate the fallout of the plague from everything else.
She made an excellent choice in having a central figure to work from, and picked Enguerrand VII de Coucy, who lived through much of the insanity, and died just before the century's end. He provided an anchor for the narrative, and as nobles of the time go, was somewhat less despicable than average.
This is a very engaging, well-written book, and a good one to read in troubled times, because it reminds us: things could be worse. Much, much worse.
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
slow-paced
I feel like the biggest history nerd for managing to sit through the entire 28+ hour audiobook of A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman. Y’all, medieval history is totally MY FAVORITE EVER so of course when I see a nice, juicy audiobook that’s very, very long and it’s all about my two favorite medieval events, I snap it up and eventually listen to it. Yet, I am of two minds when it comes to A Distant Mirror — I liked the content very much, but I found myself consistently zoning out while listening, unfortunately.
Read the rest of my review here link goes live 12/7/12
Read the rest of my review here link goes live 12/7/12
I saw a reference to this book recently in something else I was reading and thought, "Oh, yes, I remember reading that book." But then I took the book down from the shelf to look at it and realized that I hadn't read it at all. I think I may have started and stopped. After all, it was published in 1978 which was an extraordinarily busy time in my life, so I may simply not have had the energy for it. It is a dense and long book.
I'm so glad that I picked it up again. The world has turned many times since its publication date more than thirty years ago, but when you get right down to it, not much has changed about human nature. Indeed, not much has changed since the 14th century about which Tuchman was writing.
Europe - specifically France and England - in the 14th century was beset by an incredible series of catastrophes. There was climate change (the Little Ice Age), the Hundred Years War between England and France, the papal schism, the last Crusades, pillaging companies of brigands, peasant revolts, and then, to top it all off, the cherry on top of the whipped cream so to speak, there was the Black Death.
The deadly pestilence of the bubonic plague may have killed a third of the total population. No one can say with absolute certainty. What is known is that many areas were virtually depopulated. The plague hit not just once but at intervals throughout the last part of this rotten century and into the 15th century.
Meanwhile, the wars ground on incessantly with, as usual, the poor ordinary folk as their main victims. When one considers all the things that went wrong in this century, it is somewhat amazing that anything of European society remained when it finally dragged to its sorry end.
Barbara Tuchman was a tireless and thorough researcher and it certainly shows in this book. With an enormous amount of ground to cover and events to explain, she frequently wanders off in delightful ways to various related topics of medieval life. With all that meandering though, she still manages to keep the reader focused on a clear narrative of events.
She does this by the device of showing us the benighted century though the life of a particular man, a French nobleman named Enguerrand de Coucy. Coucy was a sort of 14th century Forrest Gump who happened to be present at many of the important events that occurred during his lifetime. Moreover, his activities were remarkably well-documented and he was an inspired choice for the peg on which to hang the tattered cloak of this century.
The title of this book, A Distant Mirror, was an acknowledgement by Ms. Tuchman that her century, the 20th, was in many ways a reflection of the medieval century. If you think about that long list of tragedies that were to mark that long-ago time and compare them to the events of the 20th and now 21st centuries, the things which they have in common are apparent. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it and we never seem to learn.
If we fail to learn, it cannot be laid on the shoulders of Barbara Tuchman who did a truly masterful job of bringing the calamitous century to life and making us feel the pain of those who lived and died (often horribly) there.
I'm so glad that I picked it up again. The world has turned many times since its publication date more than thirty years ago, but when you get right down to it, not much has changed about human nature. Indeed, not much has changed since the 14th century about which Tuchman was writing.
Europe - specifically France and England - in the 14th century was beset by an incredible series of catastrophes. There was climate change (the Little Ice Age), the Hundred Years War between England and France, the papal schism, the last Crusades, pillaging companies of brigands, peasant revolts, and then, to top it all off, the cherry on top of the whipped cream so to speak, there was the Black Death.
The deadly pestilence of the bubonic plague may have killed a third of the total population. No one can say with absolute certainty. What is known is that many areas were virtually depopulated. The plague hit not just once but at intervals throughout the last part of this rotten century and into the 15th century.
Meanwhile, the wars ground on incessantly with, as usual, the poor ordinary folk as their main victims. When one considers all the things that went wrong in this century, it is somewhat amazing that anything of European society remained when it finally dragged to its sorry end.
Barbara Tuchman was a tireless and thorough researcher and it certainly shows in this book. With an enormous amount of ground to cover and events to explain, she frequently wanders off in delightful ways to various related topics of medieval life. With all that meandering though, she still manages to keep the reader focused on a clear narrative of events.
She does this by the device of showing us the benighted century though the life of a particular man, a French nobleman named Enguerrand de Coucy. Coucy was a sort of 14th century Forrest Gump who happened to be present at many of the important events that occurred during his lifetime. Moreover, his activities were remarkably well-documented and he was an inspired choice for the peg on which to hang the tattered cloak of this century.
The title of this book, A Distant Mirror, was an acknowledgement by Ms. Tuchman that her century, the 20th, was in many ways a reflection of the medieval century. If you think about that long list of tragedies that were to mark that long-ago time and compare them to the events of the 20th and now 21st centuries, the things which they have in common are apparent. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it and we never seem to learn.
If we fail to learn, it cannot be laid on the shoulders of Barbara Tuchman who did a truly masterful job of bringing the calamitous century to life and making us feel the pain of those who lived and died (often horribly) there.
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
A history of the 14th Century, which follows the life of French lord Enguerrand de Coucy as a kind of "main character". Full of quotable quotes & notable details. Definitely worth reading before you read Name of the Rose, or Game of Thrones. Mostly focuses on France & chivalry & war, but touches on events throughout Western Europe, and has many digressions about the daily life of regular people in towns and farms. Emphasizes that while the fighting of the Hundred Years War was sporadic, the destruction wrought by the armies that fought the war was continuous, even during the times that were supposedly peaceful. I could have read hundreds more pages of this.
The end notes contain some interesting info about sources, but they are mostly skippable. Contradictions in sources are often discussed in the text.
I like how Tuchman constantly asks "what the fuck was wrong with these people?!??" In the chapter on "Youth & Chivalry", Tuchman wonders if 14th century parents neglected their children, citing everything from a seeming dearth of literary references to motherhood & parenting to depictions of the Christ Child in art, lying "alone on the ground, swaddled or sometimes quite naked and uncovered, while an unsmiling mother gazes at him abstractedly". At another point, she speculates that most of the historical figures were actually quite young, so maybe that's why they acted so rashly. Reading in 2021, the obvious answer to what was wrong with them is head injuries, but I think we must also allow for the possibility that there wasn't anything wrong with the people of the 1300s, but Tuchman was too much of a nerd to comprehend a society of cool kids.
I got the feeling that Tuchman really came to like Enguerrand de Coucy. Relating his many accomplishments, she seemed kind of proud of him. The fact that his efforts usually failed (except for his efforts to accumulate wealth) is usually explained by the fact that they were in the service of idiotic or pointless schemes that were bound to fail no matter who was handling the diplomacy, fighting, or both.
The end notes contain some interesting info about sources, but they are mostly skippable. Contradictions in sources are often discussed in the text.
I like how Tuchman constantly asks "what the fuck was wrong with these people?!??" In the chapter on "Youth & Chivalry", Tuchman wonders if 14th century parents neglected their children, citing everything from a seeming dearth of literary references to motherhood & parenting to depictions of the Christ Child in art, lying "alone on the ground, swaddled or sometimes quite naked and uncovered, while an unsmiling mother gazes at him abstractedly". At another point, she speculates that most of the historical figures were actually quite young, so maybe that's why they acted so rashly. Reading in 2021, the obvious answer to what was wrong with them is head injuries, but I think we must also allow for the possibility that there wasn't anything wrong with the people of the 1300s, but Tuchman was too much of a nerd to comprehend a society of cool kids.
I got the feeling that Tuchman really came to like Enguerrand de Coucy. Relating his many accomplishments, she seemed kind of proud of him. The fact that his efforts usually failed (except for his efforts to accumulate wealth) is usually explained by the fact that they were in the service of idiotic or pointless schemes that were bound to fail no matter who was handling the diplomacy, fighting, or both.
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is the best medieval history book I have ever read, and just an amazing book overall. Tuchman explores the 14th century focusing on the life of one extraordinary man: Enguerrand Coucy (1340-1397), the 7th and last lord of the Coucy estates in Picardy France. Coucy lived through years of the Black Plague, The Hundred Years War, the Papal Schism, the Jacquerie revolts in France, the liberation of Switzerland and the advance of the Ottoman empire. He was taken as a prisoner of war by the English, only to marry King Edward's favorite spoiled daughter, Isabella. He was equal parts a warrior and a diplomat, a man valued for both his words and his actions. His story- and the story of the 14th century- is a captivating one.