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A Distant Mirror

The Calamitous 14th Century
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Barbara W. Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror offers a grand portrait of 14th-century Europe, a time marked by both splendour and chaos. From the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years' War, the book explores the era’s wide social spectrum, revealing the lives of nobles, serfs, clergy, and knights. Through vivid narrative, Tuchman captures the rhythms of history alongside the texture of daily lifeβ€”childhood, marriage, and the impact of war and taxesβ€”bringing to life an age of cathedrals, crusades, and chivalry shadowed by turmoil and spiritual agony.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$6200

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers fascinated by medieval history, European history enthusiasts, and those who appreciate richly detailed narrative histories that explore both grand events and everyday life.

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Frequently issued with the same ISBN but with slightly differing bibliographical details.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman proves her talent for seeking out characters at all levels of society in this beautifully repackaged and reissued edition of her grand portrait of 14th-century Europe.

A marvelous history of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years' War, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Guns of August.

The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory imagesβ€”on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chaos and spiritual agony. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic lifeβ€”what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knightβ€”in all his valour and "furious follies," a "terrible worm in an iron cocoon."

Praise for A Distant Mirror

"Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. . . . No one has ever done this better." β€”The New York Review of Books

"A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer." β€”The Wall Street Journal

"Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition." β€”Commentary

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

β€œBeautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship... What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was... No one has ever done this better.”
β€”The New York Review of Books

β€œA beautiful, extraordinary book... Tuchman at the top of her powers... She has done nothing finer.”
β€”The Wall Street Journal

β€œWise, witty, and wonderful... a great book, in a great historical tradition.”
β€”Commentary

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780345349576

Publisher: Random House USA Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 July 1987

Country: United States

Imprint: Ballantine Books Inc.

Illustration: 3 8-PP, 1 16-PP PHOTO SECTION; 5 MAPS

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 41.0mm

Width: 141.0mm

Height: 211.0mm

Weight: 612g

Pages: 784

About the Author

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) achieved prominence as a historian with The Zimmermann Telegram and international fame with The Guns of August-a huge bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Her other works include Bible and Sword, The Proud Tower, Stilwell and the American Experience in China (for which Tuchman was awarded a second Pulitzer Prize), Notes from China, A Distant Mirror, Practicing History, The March of Folly, and The First Salute.

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