A Distant Mirror
Author | : Barbara Tuchman |
Publisher | : Penguin UK |
Total Pages | : 784 |
Release | : 2017-10-05 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780241972984 |
ISBN-13 | : 0241972981 |
Rating | : 4/5 (981 Downloads) |
Download or read book A Distant Mirror written by Barbara Tuchman and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 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.