A Distant Mirror

A classic history of fourteenth-century Europe, from the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Guns of AugustThe 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.Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries and guilty passions, Tuchman recreates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, above all, knights. The result is an astonishing reflection of medieval Europe, a historical tour de force.

“A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer”

A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer Wall Street Journal
Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition Commentary
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 New York Review of Books

Barbara Tuchman achieved prominence as a historian with The Zimmerman Telegram and international fame with the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Guns of August. She is also the author of The Proud Tower, Stilwell and the American Experience in China (also awarded the Pulitzer Prize), A Distant Mirror and The March of Folly. She died in 1989. The Guns of August and The Proud Tower are published by Penguin.

'Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . No one has ever done this better' New York Review of Books It has been said that 'no epoch was more naturally mad'. On the one hand the fourteenth century was a time of fabled crusades and chivalry, of glittering cathedrals and princely splendour; on the other, it was an age of social chaos and spiritual agony, pocked by plague. Here, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Barbara Tuchman captures both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of daily life - what childhood and marriage were like; how money, taxes and war dominated the lives of serf, noble and clergy alike; how death came for all, even the most skilful of knights. Granting her subjects their beauties, treacheries and guilty passions, Tuchman synthesizes the lives of proud cardinals, riotous students, feminists, innkeepers, saints and mercenaries over a vast canvas. The result is an astonishing reflection of medieval Europe, a historical tour de force and, without doubt, her finest achievement. 'A beautiful, extraordinary book' Wall Street Journal 'Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition' Commentary

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