A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Book 2

A Distant Mirror #2

by Barbara W. Tuchman, Nadia May (Narrator)

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, France

Audio Cassette

Published December 1, 2005

About the author

Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, historian, won a Pulitzer Prize for The Guns of August (1962) and for Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971).

As an author, Tuchman focused on popular production. Her clear, dramatic storytelling covered topics as diverse as the 14th century and World War I and sold millions of copies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara...

Reviews

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t realize this was a series. I think I need the series.

[Noah Goats · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second time I have read this history of the 14th century, and I liked it just as much the second time around. Touchman is a great historian who writes with both verve and solid judgment. She brings the middle ages roaring back to life. Fantastic.

[Stephen Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There seems to be two sorts of books about this age, those which tell a story and those which intertwine a story in with excruciatingly detailed historical facts. This book falls in the later category. The story is utterly fascinating but, to me, sometimes got lost in the details. One thing is certain—this book was thoroughly researched.

[Alan Robisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional history of the 14th century in Europe. It is a page turner and often reads like a novel. She tells the story of the Black Death in Europe . It is believed as much as half of all people living in Europe died from the disease and 200 million died across the world

The disease originated in China and was spread over the Silk Road. It came to Europe in a Genoese vessel. It arrived in 1347 and spread steadily across Europe. It was so deadly that a person well when they went to bed did not survive the night. They had no means to treat it.
But this story is only a small part of the book 📖. The book includes many interesting characters and showed how people managed to live and love in spite of the Pandemic.

One of the characters is the one of the Kings of France who was mentally ill. At one point he snaps and tries to kill the noblemen around him. He managed to kill 5 men before he was subdued.

The book also tells the story of the 100 years war. It was a fruitless war except for the soldiers who were able to pillage and make themselves rich. Because the French did not have good leadership they did not defend themselves and lost several battles because they believed that the knight was the central part of a winning army even though they repeatedly lost to the out-manned English who used their archers to win battles.

I have read this book at least 3 times and found it fascinating each time. It stands up to rereading very well

[Kate M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched book, but will not be to everyone's taste, only to those who truly enjoy history books.
This book is a snapshot in time, the fourteenth century, a time of 'pillage, plague, and pestilence'. I think I was drawn to this book, in the midst of the covid pandemic, as the plague hit Europe from 1348-50 and then continued to recur every decade or so into the 1400s. In fact the population of Europe was 40-50% lower by the end of the century from where it was at the beginning of the century. And you would hope that living in such dire circumstances people would be kinder to others, but instead the opposite happened as avarice and violence increased as the century wore on. Wars were constant and when there was no war to go to, brigands of ex-warriors would torment and terrorize citizens and peasants. There were constant abuses and fighting within the church and amid ruling nobles. It is hardly surprising that a cult of death took hold, a dance macabre. Scary and sobering times, but fortunately they did not last, and by the mid 1400s relatively peaceful times ensued and life started to improve for most.

[Scott Hofmeister · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rating for the book was 3.36, putting it in 60th place among the 89 books we have rated. The key thing that struck everyone about this book was the level of detail. Some felt that the book gave a very comprehensive view of life during this time period and it differed from what people had imagined and so they felt that they learned a lot. Some items that stood out to people were the prevalence and desensitization to violence, how long it took people and information to travel, how the plague came in waves, how innovation was regarded very differently from today, how taxes operated, and how the Catholic church and the schism were much more about power and politics and not doctrine or theological beliefs. On the other side, a number of people felt that the book was too long, it was too detailed and that one set of details about a military campaign or palace intrigue was very much like the last. These folks, in general, wanted more analysis, more explicit links to modern times, and/or a better sense of the big picture.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nadia May is lovely to listen to, and the history is fascinating. A lot of people and details to keep track of in an audio book, and I may have retained more by reading instead of listening, but I really enjoyed it all the same. Enjoyed it despite it being essentially another history of people's violence against one another. Oh, yeah, and a reminder that the wealthy and powerful are always ruthless and determined in their fight to snatch what they can from others and to retain their wealth, power, and privileges.

[Lexi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating if winding tale of the middle ages, the black death, the hundred years war, and the impacts of all those things on the foundations of British and French societies. Perhaps would be better to read it: listening it was hard to keep track of the actors, and the shifting of the tale from one country to another, one year to the next or back again. But wow, it was full of interesting detail (eg sanitation was better in 1300s than in 1700s!). If was a great exploration of how those calamities shifted the power structures and mores of shifting fiefdoms into national identities. Worth a listen and perhaps a read!

[Datta_Vikas · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book (that is unrelated to my profession) of all time. This book is about trying to communicate how the Medieval European world worked. There is a narrative about Anguerrand de Coucy but it is a device to give us a feeling of living in that distant world. The author does a great job of painting the picture based on exhaustive research, and her humor in pointing out the paradoxes of the age is a great touch. The audiobook especially is expertly narrated and makes me feel transported to that world, every time (This is my go to re-read).

[Nočnica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tuchman writes the perfect histories, a magpie's tour that stops at everything interesting, inspiring or just plain delightful in the historic record. From this book I learned about nobles shifting names, the relationship between early France and England, and got the tiniest sliver of anecdotes about the neverending warfare between the classes.

After finishing the book, it became a go-to sleep read, the density of the sentences and the depth of information were somehow a perfect invitation to nod off.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take-aways:
- Knights sucked and only existed to safeguard the holdings of the nobility. And also cruelly pillage the people they conquered... tbh they did that a lot.
- Warfare was a noble pastime with very little actual strategy for winning said wars.
- Bubonic plague = horrifyingly large scale loss of life which still affected population a century later.
- Two popes! Oh no! This will definitely not have consequences for over a century and cause fragmentation of the Christian church.
- Killing the Jews whenever anything went wrong was super not cool but also super common :/

[Sean DeLauder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Tuchman is an author for whom topic is utterly irrelevant, but chose to give life to tumultuous 14th century France and resurrect Enguerrand de Coucy, a notable French nobleman of the era, in order to spin around him a swirling vignette of Catholic Schism, the 100 years war, The Black Death, all interlaced with striking observations and wrapped up in poignant and musical prose. If she had written phone books for a living they would undoubtedly be considered 20th century literature.

[Fate's Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tuchman manages to make a fascinating period so dry that I almost couldn't force myself to finish. This also purports to be a book about Europe but actually focuses in extremely heavily on France and to a lesser extent England and their calamitous politics with each other. Very little of the rest of Europe is even mentioned except as it intersects with these two countries. The research is, I'm sure, extremely thorough, but it's a long, heavy read.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1300's was a tumultuous time for Europe. The French and the English were fighting over land. Three plague was decimating the rich and the poor. The Turks were gaining power. And three Jews were the scapegoats once again. Barbara Tuchman tells it like it is a bedside story. Factual but very interesting.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some scholars take issue with Tuchman's use of sources for which there may be better materials, I found this to be a very good treatment of a large slice of a tumultuous time in Europe. We get plagues, wars, crusades, and schism - all told with some depth and analysis of who was doing what to whom and why. Well worth the time, I thought.

[Alexis Kaelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, first off, I'm sure much of this is out of date. I approached it knowing how old it is, but goodness was it fun. I thought it would be a slog. Not so. I truly looked forward to listening to it - all 29 hours of it - each day. Tuchman has such a keen sense of humor and weaves the stories of high born and low into each page.

[Donal Shine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read that draws you back to the days of gallantry, chivalry & plague. Stories full of knights, would be kings, realms in chaos & danger around every corner. Game of thrones but real life. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being sucked into this forgotten world

[Red Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely detailed, but shows its age in the rather outdated conceptions of several key figures, and in some rather odd undercurrents of misogyny and misogynist ideas I did not expect from a female historian.

[Sandy Reenders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superbly long but very interesting book about a subject I knew nothing about!

[Rocky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both good fun and educational.

[Anastasia]

There was too much minutia for me. I was looking for more of a broad view of events. I kept getting lost in the little details of each person's movements.

[Jamie Polancic · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was like a mix of very fun and very boring but i live middle age stuff!!

[Dianne DiFrisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well told history of a century rife with plague poverty feudalism starvation and much more. Easy to read; makes me appreciate my life

[Spice Giant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deserves a long, thorough look

[Nis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gets a bit too bogged down in details

[ITry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tw: history

Enguerrand de coucy the love letter

This book is information dense and thus a lot of it is forgotten by me but i would love to read it instead of listen to it.
Sadly its about enguerrand who whilst its valid to like, i personally now know more about him than i have ever and will ever wish lolol
But v well written if a bit too monotone in some parts. Id deffo read another book by them, especially if its shorter cus my brain feels v smooth rn XD

[Page]

I figured this book was perfect for a long car trip. Enough story for me and enough fact for the hubby. Unfortunately, the narrator's voice was difficult to understand and there were so many names, I couldn't keep anything straight whist driving. Perhaps, one day, I'll seek out the dead tree version. So many glowing reviews may mean this is a case of it's me, not the book.