false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1203173999m/568236.jpg 568236 33 The 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: on the one hand a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry and exquisitely illuminated Books of Hours; on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony —a world plunged into chaos. Barbara Tuchman anatomizes the century, revealing to us both 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. Here are guilty passions; loyalties and treacheries; political assassinations; sea battles and sieges; fear of the end of the world; corruption in high places and a yearning for reform; satire and humor; sorcery and demonology; lust and sadism on the stage. Here are proud cardinals, beggars, bailiffs, feminists, Jews, scholars of the university, grocers, bankers, clerks, sorcerers, mercenaries, saints and mystics, lawyers and tax-collectors, and, dominating all, the knight in his valor and "furious follies," a "terrible worm in an iron cocoon." "Wise, witty, and wonderful... A great book, in a great historical tradition." David Herbert Donald, COMMENTARY "Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship... What Mrs. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was... No one has ever done this better." Lawrence Stone. THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS ------------- In this sweeping historical narrative, Barbara Tuchman writes of the cataclysmic 14th century, when the energies of medieval Europe were devoted to fighting internecine wars and warding off the plague. Some medieval thinkers viewed these disasters as divine punishment for mortal wrongs; others, more practically, viewed them as opportunities to accumulate wealth and power. One of the latter, whose life informs much of Tuchman's book, was the French nobleman Enguerrand de Coucy, who enjoyed the opulence and elegance of the courtly tradition while ruthlessly exploiting the peasants under his thrall. Tuchman looks into such events as the Hundred Years War, the collapse of the medieval church, and the rise of various heresies, pogroms, and other events that caused medieval Europeans to wonder what they had done to deserve such horrors. 227267 12 7 1979 A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century total:1135|5:455|4:451|3:197|2:28|1:4| 1135 4730 1874 163 5 11 false false Mon Feb 11 19:28:40 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 19:36:56 -0800 2008
I know it sounds...odd...but until I read this book, I felt like I was weird because I liked history--hard core, down and dirty, obscure and addictive, history.

Whenever I researched women and history, their contributions were alway...more...]]> 5 8 false false Sat Oct 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 15 11:26:22 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 25 19:15:32 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1994 Mon Nov 19 14:50:38 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 19 14:56:31 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 18:10:32 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 18:45:55 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 14:54:46 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 15:03:36 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Mar 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 09:27:34 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 14:00:23 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Mar 29 18:15:12 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 18:46:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1995 Thu Feb 28 12:51:48 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 28 12:57:19 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Tue May 26 03:24:08 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 03:31:29 -0700 2009
This is a very uncharacte...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 16:38:12 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 16:42:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Oct 10 09:06:35 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 09:19:38 -0700 2009 The big "ahah" I g...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1993 Sun Feb 15 18:24:37 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 18:29:01 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Wed Sep 03 17:37:43 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 17:37:43 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 12:18:02 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 12:27:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 12 19:50:55 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 20:00:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 13:47:25 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 14:32:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 21:34:42 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 19:00:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Mon Jun 08 07:55:46 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 08:00:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1980 Tue Dec 30 22:48:52 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 23:00:06 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 20:58:21 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 13:03:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=568236