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=                          A_Distant_Mirror                          =
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                            Introduction
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'A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century' is a narrative history
book by the American historian Barbara Tuchman, first published by
Alfred A. Knopf in 1978.
It won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in History.
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1980
"National Book Awards - 1980"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved
2012-03-16.
This was the 1980 award for paperback History.
From 1980 to 1983, dual hardcover and paperback awards were given in
most categories, and in multiple nonfiction subcategories, including
History. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including
this one.

The main title, 'A Distant Mirror', conveys Tuchman's thesis that the
death and suffering of the 14th century reflect those of the 20th
century, particularly the horrors of World War I and the ominous
prospect of nuclear war threatening her time.


                              Summary
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The book's focus is the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages which caused
widespread suffering in Europe in the 14th century. Drawing heavily on
'Froissart's Chronicles', Tuchman recounts the histories of the
Hundred Years' War, the Black Plague, the Papal Schism, pillaging
mercenaries, anti-Semitism, popular revolts including the Jacquerie in
France, the liberation of Switzerland, the Battle of the Golden Spurs,
and various peasant uprisings. She also discusses the advance of the
Islamic Ottoman Empire into Europe until the disastrous Battle of
Nicopolis. However, Tuchman's scope is not limited to political and
religious events. She begins with a discussion of the Little Ice Age,
a change in climate that reduced average temperatures in Europe well
into the mid-19th century, and describes the lives of all social
classes, including nobility, clergy, and peasantry.

Much of the narrative is woven around the life of the French nobleman
Enguerrand de Coucy. Tuchman chose him as a central figure partly
because his life spanned much of the 14th century, from 1340 to 1397.
A powerful French noble who married Isabella, eldest daughter of
Edward III of England, Coucy's ties put him in the middle of events.


                         Critical reception
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'A Distant Mirror' received much popular acclaim. A reviewer in
'History Today' described it as an enthralling work full of "vivid
pen-portraits". In 'The Spectator', David Benson called it "an
exciting and even bracing" book which did away with many sentimental
myths about the Middle Ages. It also received a favorable review in
the 'Los Angeles Times.'

However, scholarly reaction was lukewarm. In the journal 'Speculum',
Charles T. Wood praised Tuchman's narrative abilities but described
the book as a "curiously dated and old-fashioned work" and criticized
it for being shaped by the political concerns of the United States in
the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bernard S. Bachrach criticized
Tuchman's reliance on secondary sources and dated translations of
medieval narratives at the expense of archival research, and
characterized the book as a whole as "a readable fourteenth-century
version of the Fuzz n' Wuz (cops and corpses) that dominates the
evening news on television." Thomas Ohlgren agreed with many of
Bachrach's criticisms, and further took issue with many perceived
anachronisms in Tuchman's characterization of the medieval world and a
lack of scholarly rigor. William McNeill, writing in the 'Chicago
Tribune', thought that 'A Distant Mirror', while well-written on a
technical level, did not present an intelligible picture of the
period.

David Dunham reviewed 'A Distant Mirror' for 'Different Worlds'
magazine and stated that "The information density is fairly high, and
it's quite readable. I recommend 'A Distant Mirror' to anyone
interested in learning more about the middle ages."

The book inspired Katherine Hoover to write her composition 'Medieval
Suite'.


                              Editions
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, all editions are re-printings with identical pagination and contents
(xx, 677 pages).

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