The History Book Club discussion

Hello Everyone,

For the week of July 25th - July 31st, we are reading approximately the next 47 pages of A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman.

The sixth week's reading assignment is:

Week Six - July 25th - July 31st -> PART ONE - Chapters SEVEN and EIGHT p. 155 - 203
SEVEN - Decapitated France: The Bourgeois Rising and the Jacquerie and EIGHT - Hostage in England

We will open up a thread for each week's reading. Please make sure to post in the particular thread dedicated to those specific chapters and page numbers to avoid spoilers. We will also open up supplemental threads as we did for other spotlighted books.

This book was kicked off on June 20th. We look forward to your participation. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other noted on line booksellers do have copies of the book and shipment can be expedited. The book can also be obtained easily at your local library, or on your Kindle.

There is time still remaining to obtain the book and get started.

There is no rush and we are thrilled to have you join us. It is never too late to get started and/or to post.

Welcome,

~Bentley


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by Barbara W. Tuchman

How is everyone going with the book, still enjoying Barbara Tuchman's journey into the tortured 14th century and the life of Enguerrand de Coucy?

Thank you Aussie Rick for backing me up while I am out of the country.

My pleasure :)

I have a book in my library that I purchased after reading "A Distant Mirror" which I haven't gotten around to yet but it may interest others who enjoy Barbara Tuchman's book. It's a 1897 biography of Bertrand du Guesclin who was the Constable of France and is mentioned numerous times in "A Distant Mirror". The book was written by Enoch Vine Stoddard and is titled; "Bertrand Du Guesclin, Constable of France; His Life and Times".

by Enoch Vine Stoddard

Another good book on the subject and more recent is; "The Flower of Chivalry: Bertrand du Guesclin and the Hundred Years War" by Richard Vernier.


by Richard Vernier

More information on Bertrand du Guesclin:

Bertrand du Guesclin

Just finished these chapters. I am continuing my enjoyment of Tuchman's writing. I like how she tells the story. And the weaving in of the life of Engurrand, or Enguard, or... let's call him de Coucy, adds a certain appeal to the story.

One of the shockers in these chapters came on page 156, "He owned a library, large for its time, of 76 books." What horror! Seventy-six books is a large library? Oh, the pain! What joy to live in this century.

Wouldn't it be fun to make a list of 14th century customs that could be done today? An interesting one is on page 160, "On holidays it was a Paris custom to dine at a table set outside the front door." Not far from the custom of so many summer holidays to have a backyard barbeque, I guess.

I like the phrase, "greatest invention since sliced bread." On page 161 Tuchman mentions that streets had no inscribed names. Another one of those things we really take for granted in modern society. Perhaps we should say, "greatest invention since labeled street names."

By the way, I'm just realizing that so many of the pictures and art described in the text are the ones included as illustrations in the book. For example, on page 171 Tuchman describes Marcel as represented in the 12 seasons, which is shown in Figure 25.

It was interesting to compare the Jacquerie uprising with the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Perhaps the biggest difference is the attitude towards the king.

War in medieval times was a strange beast in many ways. Well, strange to us today. I like how Tuchman sums up many points when she said, "Short of a fluke like the capture of a king at Pointiers, medieval armies had no means of achieving a decisive result, much less unconditional surrender" (page 189). And yet when you look at the years stuck in stagnated trench warfare, WWI wasn't much different. Okay, I take that back. Four or five years compared with 100 years? Big difference.

Charles of Navarre was really into everything, wasn't he? My goodness.

Favorite phrase from these chapters: While describing Joanna, Queen of Naples, Tuchman says she was "Halfway through an active connubial career" (page 201). What a woman.

What a tremendous post Elizabeth S. Hard to believe that 76 books was a large library (lol).

Love your comments.

Thanks. :) It is a fun book to read.

I was taken aback by Jean II's attitude, his seeming lack of concern for his people. And, of course, by the slaughter by the Jacques, and of the Jacques. A really bloody time.

Very much so; you have to wonder how far we have come in at least most parts of the world.

Your comment, Mary Ellen, started me thinking. Is there any time/place in history where it wasn't bloody? I guess brief times, perhaps smaller locations. But any period of history seems to have wars, plagues, or slaughters of some sort. Or is it just that those are the memorable moments of history? Perhaps the times without the wars, plagues, and slaughters drop from public memory because they are so... uninteresting.

Maybe the time of the "Pax Romana"? (I just know the phrase, I don't know the history -- I picture those legions engaging in battle 24/7!)

Hearing about the reprisals in Syria after reading about the Jacques gave me an eerie sense of history endlessly repeating itself. This book paints a disturbingly clear picture of the downtrodden life of the peasants (probably true in most eras and cultures where there is a peasant class).

I think chapter 8 did a great job showing just how morally gray or reality truly is.

Very good Ken - you found the discussion we had in 2011. Reality has many shades