A Distant Mirror

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is a sweeping, brilliantly told portrait of one of history’s most turbulent eras. Centered on the life of the French nobleman Enguerrand de Coucy, Tuchman brings the fourteenth century vividly to life—an age ravaged by plague, war, religious schism, and social collapse. With the narrative drive of a novel and the authority of a master historian, she draws unsettling parallels between medieval crisis and the anxieties of the modern world. Richly detailed, deeply human, and unforgettable in scope, A Distant Mirror is not merely a chronicle of catastrophe, but a powerful reminder of how societies endure, fracture, and remake themselves in times of profound upheaval.