Barbara W. Tuchman's A Distant Mirror

The 14th century was a dark period in history where mankind showed what it was capable of. The medieval period brought gaping divide between social classes, causing a time period with extreme prosperity and unrivaled poverty. These events, recorded in scattered historical documents, are gathered succinctly in Barbara W. Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror. A Distant Mirror follows the history of European humanity during this time period, loosely focusing on Enguerrand de Coucy, a French nobleman. Through this lenses, A Distant Mirror recounts the depravity of human nature and the ability to rise above it. A Distant Mirror summarizes the events of the 14th century through captivating story telling. Tuchman focuses on life in the 14th century using a

Using parts of speech such as these can take a reader out of the moment and ruin the serious tone of the book. And while A Distant Mirror does contain instances of irony, these are almost exclusively irony pre-existing in the pages of history, simply being retold by Tuchman. However, A Distant Mirror does contain an incredible amount figurative language. Tuchman uses figurative language in several different ways throughout the book, painting a beautiful picture of long lost structures. She also expands the readers understanding of the characters through vivid metaphors. Through the layering of the topics of that time, Tuchman shows the similarities between the people of then and now. Though circumstances were vastly different, A Distant Mirror gave me insight on how I might have lived during the 14th century. A depraved culture attempted to ignore the core of its problem, and let the issue grow until it was unavoidable. This is not unlike our culture today, albeit on a much larger scale. Instead of trying to reach the root of our problem, we try to mask the issue or ignore it all together; allowing it to grow in the