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I would recommend reading Bernard Bachrach's review of A Distant Mirror. "...her generalizations about medieval warfare are grossly inaccurate. Her discussions
by wrp 8y ago
I would recommend reading Bernard Bachrach's review of A Distant Mirror.
"...her generalizations about medieval warfare are grossly inaccurate. Her discussions of individual psychology and group psychology are equally foolish. She seems to have little understanding of what motivated the people about whom she writes and generally resorts to cliches such as chivalry or individual neuroses as explanations."
- 1123581321 8y agoI’d rather someone read another book than an article. It’s too easy to write glibly about the Middle Ages in a short piece of comment and they’re not well enough understood to fill in the context correctly. Most of the readers in this thread will benefit from reading the entire book and then returning to the linked article. The article on its own would not lead to a better understanding of history, just a few new lines to repeat.
- blackbagboys 8y agoTuchman in her heyday was the recipient of an enormous amount of opprobrium from her generation of academic historians (of which the nearly-fossilized Bachrach is a member), mostly for being a non-academic, extremely successful female popular historian. Modern academics are generally much more positive about her work. Just remember that it's an introductory popular history.
- mcguire 8y agoAny idea where to get said review? (One of the best things about Computer Science is that, generally, every publication after 1990 is online and available for those of us without access to an academic research library.)
- wrp 8y agohttp://gen.lib.rus.ec/ http://gen.lib.rus.ec/