A distant mirror the calamitous 14th century

Look Inside. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike.

In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. No one has ever done this better.

A distant mirror the calamitous 14th century

Knopf in It won a U. National Book Award in History. The main title, A Distant Mirror , conveys Tuchman's thesis that the death and suffering of the 14th century reflect those of the 20th century, particularly the horrors of World War I. The book's focus is the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages which caused widespread suffering in Europe in the 14th century. Drawing heavily on Froissart's Chronicles , Tuchman recounts the histories of the Hundred Years' War , the Black Plague , the Papal Schism , pillaging mercenaries , anti-Semitism , popular revolts including the Jacquerie in France, the liberation of Switzerland , the Battle of the Golden Spurs , and various peasant uprisings. However, Tuchman's scope is not limited to political and religious events. She begins with a discussion of the Little Ice Age , a change in climate that reduced average temperatures in Europe well into the midth century, and describes the lives of all social classes, including nobility, clergy, and peasantry. Much of the narrative is woven around the life of the French nobleman Enguerrand de Coucy. Tuchman chose him as a central figure partly because his life spanned much of the 14th century, from to

Afterwards, the French populace was horrified by this ghastly tragedy, a perverse playing on the edge of madness and death nearly killing their King. A modern take on a classical icon: this original, entertaining, well-researched book uses the story of when, where, and how Chopin composed his most famous work, uncovering many surprises along the way and showing how his innovative music still animates popular culture centuries later.

Jump to ratings and reviews. Want to read. Rate this book. Barbara W. The 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of war, fear and the Plague.

Account Options Ieiet. Barbara W. Random House Publishing Group , In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. No one has ever done this better.

A distant mirror the calamitous 14th century

Jump to ratings and reviews. Want to read. Rate this book. Barbara W. The 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of war, fear and the Plague. Barbara Tuchman anatomizes the century, revealing both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived. Loading interface About the author. Tuchman 44 books 1, followers.

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This explains why the Lancastrian War is summarized, in the epilog. My interest in medieval times is not incredibly strong; it is, in fact, relegated mostly to the hope of someday going to a Medieval Times restaurant. So much death and destruction. She has done nothing finer. This time they were decimated at the hands of the Turks at Nicopolis in A pessimism ensued which would last into the next century. In the journal Speculum , Charles T. I preferred the first part of the book. A modern take on a classical icon: this original, entertaining, well-researched book uses the story of when, where, and how Chopin composed his most famous work, uncovering many surprises along the way and showing how his innovative music still animates popular culture centuries later. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one. If you want to read only one popular general history about life in 14th century Western Europe, it should probably be Ian Mortimer's Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England , which, whilst still having some male bias, is more recent, therefore more accurate according to current scholarship, and more detailed about social history, and personally involving, yet does also touch on details of politics and nobility. Look around you, your friends, family, neighborhood, school, town, state, country. Author 12 books followers. Knights from around Europe took part in this Crusade, again driven by vainglory. It seems to every generation that its problems are the worst ever, that no one else has ever seen such an insurmountable combination of dire circumstances.

The fourteenth century was a time of fabled crusades and chivalry, glittering cathedrals and grand castles. It was also a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague. Here, Barbara Tuchman masterfully reveals the two contradictory images of the age, examining the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes and war dominated the lives of serf, noble and clergy alike.

From a New York Times best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist, a sweeping epic of how the Vikings and their descendants have shaped history and America Isabella seems to have been a fashion tastemaker and shopaholic, and unusually and wilfully independent by the standards of women of her time, refusing a succession of proposals until Enguerrand's, in her thirties. I was a little worried at the start that pages of 14th century history might be, shall we say, a bit too much. Categories : non-fiction books 20th-century history books Alfred A. Tuchman's subject, French nobleman Enguerrand VII de Coucy seems to have had great political agility too: a master diplomat by middle age, considered by contemporaries to be one of the greatest knights of his era, and he married Isabella, daughter of Edward III of England despite not being a king's son himself. For his beard was…little more than the kind of fuzz that ladies have in certain places. Similar to Margery Kempe but with less crying, I guess? Emblematic of this is the entire complex ideal and scheme of courtly love: the only romantic love approved of, especially in the aristocratic cultural milieu, was guilty love, which was illegal and shameful in reality. No doubt thanks to the work of the Marxist economic historians who were one of the main schools of thought when the book was written, and remained influential into the 90s when they were among the interpretations we were advised to always mention at A-level. And all those musical instruments speak volumes about how the 14th century was a world away from the plainchant of the early middle ages. His reliance on practical wisdom and personal charisma saved him from the brutal fate of many of his contemporaries, but his obedience to the code at the end of the century during the Nicopolis Crusade cost him his life.