Rating: 
Summary: An excellent sourcebook for the amateur medievalist
Review: I have just finished A Distant Mirror and am in awe at both the sheer volume of information she has conveyed and the engaging way she did it. It is a detail laden work, so get out your waders!
Rating: 
Summary: Totally disorganised and hard to follow.
Review: I was really looking forward to this book having read such good reviews, but was totally disappointed. The facts are there somewhere, but buried under so many irrelevant details, in the end I gave up on it. Which is a pity because there are not many books around in English on this era of French history. Definitely not recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: outstanding
Review: This is a scholarly yet highly entertaining account of this period. At times this book was so compelling that I could hardly put it down. Although it is a history, in many ways it reads as a thriller. I highly recommend to anyone in search of academic information and entertainment
Rating:
Summary: accomplishing the impossible
Review: This book has done the nearly impossible.
Making what could have been a dull book of
dead facts and irrelevancies come to life
and actually be enjoyable. The book has seriously
led me to question the basic sanity of mankind
in the fourteenth century. It seems the primary
preoccupation of Europe between losing most of their population from three outbreaks of the
Black Death, was engaging in a multitude of horribly stupid territorial wars. This is an
excellent presentation of what has to be one of the two worst centuries in this millenia, the
other being our own.
Rating:
Summary: Tightly written, factual and gripping
Review: This was a re-read for me. I completed it in 1989,
read it several times afterward and started it again this summer. Some have critized it for "disorganization". History is disorganized. Ms. Tuchman does a great job of putting us there in that time, with those people. We can see ourselves, we can see our origins and origins of things that are with us today. An absolute must in understanding Europe in the 1300's.
A marvelous book that speaks to us about days past.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and Objective View of the 14th Century
Review: A Distant Mirror is a worthy addition to Barbara Tuchman's reportoire of historical works. She brings to life the events of 14th century Europe and exposes chivalry and the church
for what they really were: Corrupt people subjugating the population of Europe.
She uses the life of Enguerrand de Coucy as the centerpiece of
her treatment of the times. A prominent, but historically obscure
noble, Coucy is shown vividly in all his elegance at court and
bloodthirstiness in slaughtering peasants who attempted to assert
their freedom.
No one can come away from this book without seeing the 14th century in human terms. Ms. Tuchman's work, as are all of her books, is a challenging read. Her grammar, although impeccable, is complex and imaginative.
Not for the light reader, but fascinating for anyone who wants
to learn about history without sugarcoating or nationalistic slanting.
Rating:
Summary: Medieval Knights and Days; Brilliant and Overwhelming
Review: Barbara Tuchman's work is in the genre of the essayists of the 19th century. Like them, she is erudite, humorous, and
at times, disorganized. But how could it be otherwise? Imagine writing such a work about the 20th century, attempting to describe for
someone 600 years hence how we have
lived over these last hundred years, and how we have changed.
This is a work which some may wish to plow though in several days; others will
put it by their best arm chair and read a section at a time.
Given the horror of Bosnia, the tedium of politics, and the daily drudge (which at times seems in spirit to be remarkably similar to that which Tuchman describes) such a work of Tuckman's can lift us up and help us to see beyond our own calamitous
century -- plus ca change; plus la meme chose.
KRH
www.umeais.maine.edu/~hayward
Rating:
Summary: Fact-filled, but disorderly, uninteresting, and down right
Review: Barbara Tuchman's attempt at this is unbelievable. The book is essentially a rambling of medival history which
often refers back to a certain dynasty. It is filled with
hundreds of obscure French names which have nothing to do
with anything. Tuchman jumps from one topic to another, creating a loose (even non-existant) organization which
leaves the reader lost and confused. Tuchman seems to think that her reader already knows the information she
is trying to convey. It is almost as if Tuchman sat down
at a typewriter and asked herself, "what do I know about
medival European history?" and then wrote whatever came to
her mind, when ever it came to her mind. With the exception
of the 5th chapter, which details the death and suffering
of millions during the various plagues, the novel is as dry
as sand. The book's only merit is its informational value,
which if the reader can follow, or for that matter even
stay awake, he may gain something from this book.
Rating:
Summary: The life of a medieval knight
Review: Tuchman tells us a 600 year old story and makes it seem as if we were reading Newsweek. The 14th century gave us Agincourt, the Black death, the growth of the
middle class and the beginning of enlightenment, and she makes the story fresh and personal. Her great strength is the way she weaves the tale, shows us the
forces that guide the flow of events, and makes us sense the importance and mystery of it all. It is her focus on people that make us care about what happens, a real
feat considering how we view the past so dimly, through that "Distant Mirror" A really good summer book for those ready to jump from Clancy to reality.
Rating:
Summary: Living the 14th century
Review: "A Distant Mirror" is a detailed, well written and mostly engrossing political, cultural, religious and social history of Europe in the fourteenth century. It comes as close as any history of the period to imparting a sense of what life was like, at all levels, in western Europe through plagues, wars, and the vicissitudes of everyday living. While the book claims to focus on one life in order to tell the history of the period, it works poorly as biography. The story of Enguerrand de Coucy is more of an excuse for delving into the period and is, in itself, more sideshow than main attraction. This is just as well, for the full cast of characters, kings, princes, lords, popes, cardinals, priests, merchants, farmers, and so on are all so fascinating that the story glides along. At times the book does suffer a little from its verbosity. It could have used a little paring down. Nonetheless as a whole it is a remarkable achievement, and well worth it for anyone interested in European or medieval history.
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