{"product_id":"a-distant-mirror-the-calamitous-14th-century-9780345349576","title":"A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \"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 \u003ci\u003eThe Guns of August\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e*Lawrence Wright, author of \u003ci\u003eThe End of October, \u003c\/i\u003ein\u003ci\u003e The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: 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 life: 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 knight--in all his valor and \"furious follies,\" a \"terrible worm in an iron cocoon.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eA Distant Mirror\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell \u003ci\u003ehow \u003c\/i\u003eit was. . . . No one has ever done this better.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Commentary\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Barbara W. Tuchman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Random House Trade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/12\/1987\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 784\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.50w x 1.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780345349576","brand":"Random House Trade","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42447301640329,"sku":"9780345349576","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_74a4b88d-5a40-4330-8e36-9eee5a2d30e4.jpg?v=1716189958","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/a-distant-mirror-the-calamitous-14th-century-9780345349576","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}