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A review by aaronreadabook
Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman
4.0
A Distant Mirror is a narrative history of Europe in the 14th century, which roughly follows the life of a French nobleman Enguerrand de Coucy.
It gives you a sense of what life was like in the century rather than being an exhaustive list of everything that happens. Taking personal perspectives of the great events of the age rather than a top down historical analysis. For sources, it seems to lean heavily on contemporary chroniclers like Froissart.
It certainly jumps around a bit, especially since Coucy seems to end up all over the place sorting out everyone's problems. Tuchman covers all the major events you would expect. The Black Death, The Schism, and The Hundred Years War all feature heavily.
She paints a picture of a world of contradictions, chivalrous knights who rape and assassinate, great men of religion who resist reform of the church but who partake in simony and amass great fortunes. The life of a peasant seems very harsh to modern eyes, and they always seemed on the edge of or fully in revolt. The contrast with the vast fortunes of the nobility seems grossly unfair and unfortunately familiar.
Tuchman has a wonderful writing style so it's a pleasure to wander around the century with her, some people might prefer a bit more structure in their history books perhaps but I was okay with it. It is an interesting time to read about, you can see the seeds of change developing as Europe is about to pass out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.
4.5/5
It gives you a sense of what life was like in the century rather than being an exhaustive list of everything that happens. Taking personal perspectives of the great events of the age rather than a top down historical analysis. For sources, it seems to lean heavily on contemporary chroniclers like Froissart.
It certainly jumps around a bit, especially since Coucy seems to end up all over the place sorting out everyone's problems. Tuchman covers all the major events you would expect. The Black Death, The Schism, and The Hundred Years War all feature heavily.
She paints a picture of a world of contradictions, chivalrous knights who rape and assassinate, great men of religion who resist reform of the church but who partake in simony and amass great fortunes. The life of a peasant seems very harsh to modern eyes, and they always seemed on the edge of or fully in revolt. The contrast with the vast fortunes of the nobility seems grossly unfair and unfortunately familiar.
Tuchman has a wonderful writing style so it's a pleasure to wander around the century with her, some people might prefer a bit more structure in their history books perhaps but I was okay with it. It is an interesting time to read about, you can see the seeds of change developing as Europe is about to pass out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.
4.5/5