A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (Review)
As the world of politics grows increasingly acrimonious, I find myself reading more history than current affairs. It is not that I am willfully ignoring what is, but history lends comforting insight and perspective. A Distant Mirror is book that offers just such a balm.
Barbara Tuchman uses 27 chapters to discuss the Middle Ages—the era once classified as the Dark Ages between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance. She addresses the misconceptions about the period and uses the biographical remains of the French nobleman, Enguerrand de Coucy, to lend insight into the 14th Century. Tuchman covers everything from the chivalric code of knights to the development of castles to Europe's plummeting population once the Black Plague arrived. The tumult of yesterday’s competing factions should make people feel better about today's frustrations—or perhaps see Tuchman's mirror as a warning of what is to come.
As part of Tuchman's insights, she developed "Tuchman's Law." The summary is in the introduction to “Distant Mirror,” and it is particularly helpful for considering today's world affairs:
"Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening — on a lucky day — without having encountered more than one or two of these phenomena. This has led me to formulate Tuchman's Law, as follows: "The fact of being reported multiplies the apparent extent of any deplorable development by five- to tenfold" (or any figure the reader would care to supply)."
Tuchman wrote her law in 1978, yet it seems just as fresh and relevant today. Beyond these observations, here are a few notes and quotes that stuck with me from “Distant Mirror:”
Tuchman: “When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.”
After the Black Plague, the church fell into lasciviousness. A commentator, Lothar of Saxony, observed, “When those who have the title of shepherd play the part of wolves, heresy grows in the garden of the church.”
In the late 1300s, Tuchman noted that chivalry was not aware of its decadence. Every noble and night was a professional, so there was no advantage when they waged war. It was war without strategy. Knighthood was no longer glamorized by troubadours. Instead, they sang songs of knights as predators.
The decadence culminated in the final French Crusade in 1396, when the knights brought silk and wine instead of siege weapons. They saw their opponents—the Ottomans—as detestable. Thus there was no need for meaningful war preparations because such a detestable opponent must simply be preordained to lose the battle.
Through all of this, Tuchman included signs of hope. Charles V the Wise, King of France from 1364 to 1380 observed, “As long as knowledge is honored in this country, so long will it prosper.” A Distant Mirror emphasized the value of this wisdom and did so with a rich and engaging narrative. It’s a book I recommend enthusiastically.
A Distant Mirror was a welcome return to my college studies of British literature because it added depth to the history we covered to setup the authors and their works. So it may be no surprise I give A Distant Mirror high praise and a full endorsement. Please note, however, that a number of historians critiqued Tuchman’s reliance on secondary sources as research for her book. There do not seem to be major concerns over the content, but A Distant Mirror does not read like a traditional scholarly work. Still, it’s an informative and entertaining read that I certainly enjoyed.
