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A review by ethanhedman
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman
4.0
"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.