Barbara W. Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror": A Comprehensive Look at the Troubled 14th Century

Cynthia: Thorough, sometimes even overwhelming, detailed account of the era. Writing style is a bit dry but otherwise a good read if you want to commit to weeks learning about the 14th century.

Canada on Nov 30, 2023

David Barrett: I teach modern history, but quickly found myself absorbed in the amazing detail in this book about a critical century during the medieval period. Tuchman (as always ‒ I recommend any of her books) paints a clear, detailed picture of life in 14th-century Europe. If you like reading non-fiction history, you won't be disappointed.

Australia on Nov 17, 2023

Amazon Customer: Ms. Tuchman writes with wit, familiarity, and love of her subject, and does so in a manner that is an absolutely fun read. Not only does she cover the political/historical aspects of this remarkable period, she also enables us to develop deeper insights into the daily lives of the aristocratic, bourgeois (merchant class), farmers, tradesmen/tradeswomen, and yeomen classes (and allows that good gossip knows no age!) This book is so very enjoyable, from beginning to end. Touché, Ms. Tuckman!

United States on Sep 24, 2023

John Condon: Excellent review of 14th century from all angles

United Kingdom on Sep 12, 2023

H Rose Jackson: I find the medieval era fascinating but much prefer history books which focus on the social history of the time, with only some smatterings about war. Military history is not my thing. This book is heavily focused on the conflicts of France throughout this era and I was bombarded with so many names and repetitive conflicts, with the individual figures not well brought to life, that it defeated me in the end. Pretty disappointed because I heard this is one the best books about the medieval period, but personally I found it bloated and too war-heavy. I also didn't find the figure (Coucy) she chose to focus on at the centre of it all particularly interesting, perhaps because he was such a war monger. It starts off well but gets more and more repetitive with the accounts of war.

United Kingdom on Jul 15, 2023

Dondayesta: This book starts as a fascinating overview of the devastating years of the plague and follows the life of one individual throughout these tortuous times.
I personally found the review of the plague to be fascinating and macabre in equal measure, and the tale of devastation is well told. I was rather less interested personally in the later political intrigues and the tales of the two popes, but the author is a very deft story teller, and this part of the book may be of more interest to others. Barbara Wertheim Tuchman brings a wealth of knowledge to a little-known period of history and brings the history books to life.

United Kingdom on Feb 26, 2023

Patrick King: One of the best history books I’ve ever read. Tuchman starts off, great historian that she was, pointing out how conflicting and exaggerating medieval sources can be, and even introduces “Tuchmans Law” (pronounced tuck-men) which basically states that bad news is repeated and spread so much that it multiplies the seeming presence of bad things in life to the point you would think nothing good ever happens (just like watching the evening news). A Distant Mirror is actually a biography of a nobleman named Enguerrand de Coucy VII (pronounced On-geh-hon-de-koo-see). She briefly covers his ancestors as some of them absolutely butchered peasants and barons in their domain while some built the great castle of Coucy in Picardy, France. She spends the first several chapters setting the stage for Enguerrand’s life. The “little ice age” that kicked off the century with some mass starvation. Chivalry and romance, with the knights who were mostly hypocrites and brigands, and women who had minimal say in life. War, how it was all about “the fight” and “the glory”, not even about good strategy. Youth, and how children were basically just treated like little adults, meaning...

United States on Sep 26, 2019

Sotto voce: I recall 30-some years ago the first time I saw the great cathedral in Richmond, Britain and wondering how could it be that this enormous structure be so remote from people? Like the Salisbury Plain … how could the 12th century version of Lincoln have possibly mustered the labor and wealth to build this structure taller than the great pyramid? It was the tallest building in the world for 238 years. After a few minutes of thinking, I remembered Barbara Tuchman's “Distant Mirror”. Lincoln, like the whole regions of modern Brittany and Picardy have never recovered from the 14th century.

I someway stumbled on the Kindle enabled edition. I don’t know how. The original print edition would have been mightily enhanced with an internet. When it was first published, “A Distant Mirror” was a Dewey Decimal System exploration in extrimis. There were simply too many side alleys to be explored

I read the book as soon as it was published around 1982. The ‘distant mirror’ that the early ‘80’s reader related to was the memory of the 70’s becoming the '80's … hot and cold war, economic “malaise”, pandemic swine flu, upward economic stagnation and class...

United States on Jan 02, 2018