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A review by cakereads
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman
5.0
so here's the thing about reading historical non-fiction: i won't remember the details, or the dates, but i always walk away with a fundamental understanding of humanity. this book reminds me of why i love reading history so fking much. it gives me this sense of shared humanity - that we've been fking things up since time immemorial, that majority of us will live lives reduced to statistics, that we are motes of dust in the greater universe. and you know what, that's fine.
because this means that no matter how apocalyptic your era seems (and the middle ages that this book covers are as apocalyptic as it gets - the black plague, endless pointless wars, ineffective government if at all), the world will go on, because humanity always finds a way. and if most of us won't make a difference in the way that matters to history, what's really stopping you from living life the way you want it instead of the way society tells you you must in order to matter?
and you might think that a book written in the 70s, covering the middle ages, would be dry, but the writing in this book - seriously, wow, so evocative and funny and entertaining. don't get me wrong, this is still a behemoth to get through, and a slog at points, but the writing is indeed beautiful and it just sweeps me right into the middle ages, and when i extricate myself from the pages, grateful to be living in the here and now.
this isn't a coherent review - i could talk about how this book opened my eyes to medieval christianity and europe and warfare - but i can only talk about how it makes me feel. and that's the thing, i won't remember the names of the french kings that went mad, and the dukes that hated each other, but i will remember the awe of recognising a fundamental truth about being human across time, and i will remember the events covered in this book that brought me there.
because this means that no matter how apocalyptic your era seems (and the middle ages that this book covers are as apocalyptic as it gets - the black plague, endless pointless wars, ineffective government if at all), the world will go on, because humanity always finds a way. and if most of us won't make a difference in the way that matters to history, what's really stopping you from living life the way you want it instead of the way society tells you you must in order to matter?
and you might think that a book written in the 70s, covering the middle ages, would be dry, but the writing in this book - seriously, wow, so evocative and funny and entertaining. don't get me wrong, this is still a behemoth to get through, and a slog at points, but the writing is indeed beautiful and it just sweeps me right into the middle ages, and when i extricate myself from the pages, grateful to be living in the here and now.
this isn't a coherent review - i could talk about how this book opened my eyes to medieval christianity and europe and warfare - but i can only talk about how it makes me feel. and that's the thing, i won't remember the names of the french kings that went mad, and the dukes that hated each other, but i will remember the awe of recognising a fundamental truth about being human across time, and i will remember the events covered in this book that brought me there.