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bufally47 's review for:
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
by Barbara W. Tuchman
A thorough investigation into the late Middle Ages. Here’s another book I’d give 3 stars in print but closer to 4 on audio. On audio I could drift off and float through the more tedious of the unceasing battles that comprised the century. I relished Tuchman’s treatment of the Danse Macabre and of the fever-dream antics of Saint Catherine of Siena. George R.R. Martin must have studied the Middle Ages closely. In The Sunne in Spendour I saw the Lannisters and Starks plain as day; in this book the Mad King, the cult of the Sparrows, and the Battle of the Bastards. I’d never known how pervasive brigandage was during this period. Or that the concept of nationhood was merely nascent. Or that the women pined for in chivalry were always already married. Or that the word “villain” originally just meant “peasant.” Or a million other little things. The chief drawbacks were: 1) too many references to an endless array of nobles; 2) too many forgettable, fruitless small battles (unlike, say, the monumental absurdity that was Nicropolis – thankfully accounted in detail); and 3) Tuchman’s focus on the French nobleman Enguerrand de Coucy which limited the book’s scope to 1340-1400, made it feel a little disjointed, and probably accounted for some of the pitfalls mentioned in points 1 and 2. Still, I bet this blows most histories out of the water; after this I truly dread my inevitable attempt at reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire .