Book Review: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

War, persecution, plague, and death galloped over the horizon on an unsuspecting Europe bring the High Middle Ages to an end and ushering in a series of crises the marked the Late Middle Ages. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman looks at this transformative century that saw two nations begin a century long war, the institution that knitted the fabric of Europe together split in twain, and finally the arrival of mass death thanks to a flea hitching a ride on a rat that stowed away on a boat.

Tuchman weaves the book around the life of Enguerrand de Coucy, a French nobleman once married to the daughter of English King Edward III putting him in the middle of events. The events of the 14th century from the Black Death that devastated the population of Europe, the first 60 years of the Hundred Year’s War that brought physical ruin to France and economic ruin to both France and England, the Papal Schism that broke the unity of the medieval Church after its long residence in Avignon that led to disrepute, and the numerous peasant revolts throughout Western Europe as a fall out from everything happening. Throughout the book, Tuchman brought up the medieval warrior code with its chivalry and worldview that the nobility claimed to do then countering it with what they did. Tuchman wanted to draw parallels between the 14th and 20th centuries and there are several that the reader could nod in agreement, however the differences are stark enough that it’s hard to make the connection but then again that might be why it’s a distant mirror. Over the course of 600 pages, Tuchman gives a pretty good portrait of the 14th Century especially regarding France but not at the total expense of the rest of the continent while being readable for the general reader.

A Distant Mirror is a general overview of the history of Europe’s 14th century which is so much more than the Black Death and Hundred Year’s War which Barbara Tuchman brings out in a very readable book.

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Book Review: Norse Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook by Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer

Norse Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook: From Vikings to Valkyries, an Epic Who's Who in Old Norse Mythology by Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

They are the mythological personages that know they are doomed but still fascinate the modern world, the are the Aesir and Vanir. Norse Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook: From Vikings to Valkyries, an Epic Who’s Who in Old Norse Mythology by Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer is a handy guide to the major figures of the mythos for those interested in who is who that features illustrations by Sara Richard.

Over the course of 231 pages, Fuller-Shafer covers the major deities of Norse mythology along with their major opponents from the familiar to the lesser known just still important figures. Along with the gods were the major human heroes, whose bloody adventures and equally bloody deaths, that were chronicled in various sagas. Given that the sources Fuller-Shafer consulted sometimes contradicted one another and some of the same stories in both the Poetic and Prose Edda are different as well, she did a good job selecting a version and sticking with its details throughout the book when covering related individuals and stories. Throughout the book the art of Sara Richard brings events, creatures, gods, goddesses, and heroes to life which is fantastic since the main reason I purchased this book was for her art.

Norse Mythology is a quick, easy to read introduction to the major points on well known gods along with human heroes that are the focus of epic sagas that Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer presents in informative synopsis form and to that the amazing art of Sara Richard which brings it to life makes is an added bonus.

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Book Review: Lake Worth Monster: The True Story of the Greer Island Goatman by Lyle Blackburn

Lake Worth Monster: The True Story of the Greer Island Goatman by Lyle Blackburn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The nation was getting ready to watch man land on the moon, but for a week in July 1969 for one community in northern Texas what was important was the creature roaming the local lake. Lake Worth Monster: The True Story of the Greer Island Goatman by Lyle Blackburn examines the well-told two-night incidents surrounding a mysterious creature that was witnessed by nearly 50 people as well as the sightings and incidents before and after the famous two-night appearances.

In 110 pages, Blackburn goes over famous July 10 and 11, 1969 incidents around Greer Island in Lake Worth just northwest of Fort Worth. Then he goes into the rest of the story from the research and interviews by Sallie Ann Clarke who wrote a book about the incidents a few months later but started a decade-long hunt to find out the truth, especially after she saw it five times over the years. Blackburn then goes the history of various creature sightings around the area, usually matching descriptions of a sasquatch especially with the tale tell big footprints including later sightings around Greer Island and the wider Lake Worth area. However, original reports called the creature a bipedal goat shaped man with horns and cloven feet which leads Blackburn to various locations where a “goatman” is said to haunt or roam from around Old Alton Bridge near Denton, Texas and Prince George County in Maryland. Blackburn also covers every base by going through the rumors who the July 1969 incidents being pranks and hoaxes done by a group of teenagers or multiple groups of teenagers independent of one another over a span of months or just spur of the moment hijinks in front of a large crowd. The major issue I have with the book is that there is a total of 164 pages which meant 50 pages were dedicated to appendices—maps, news and photo archives, an transcript of an interview of Sallie Ann Clarke, and a brief memoir by Bobby Brooks about his connected with the Lake Worth Monster story—which me seemed like the book was formatted incorrectly as the maps, news articles, and photos could have been dispersed throughout the text or between chapters while saving the Sallie Ann Clarke interview and Bobby Brooks’ short memoir as welcome additions at the end of the book. Besides the personal annoyance of the book’s structure, Blackburn’s writing is great as I finished this book in one day due to how interesting and readable he presented everything.

Lake Worth Monster covers one of the most interesting and maybe the best attested cryptid incidents on record, Lyle Blackburn covers the famous two day in July 1969 and then reveals what happened before and long after.

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Book Review: The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume One: Douglas, Buchanan & Party Chaos, 1857-59 by Allan Nevins

The Emergence of Lincoln: Douglas, Buchanan & Party Chaos, 1857-59 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The 1856 election was supposed to unite the country and save it from the festering issue of Kansas territory, unfortunately the politically spineless James Buchanan turned out to be worse than Franklin Pierce. The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume I: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857-59 is the third book of Allan Nevins’ Ordeal of the Union series, an eight-volume history of the lead up to and of the American Civil War, featuring how the last remaining link between North and South in the form of the Democratic party was broken in twain by the decisions of two men.

From the outset Nevins reveals that the country needed a national figure with a vision of national scope to unite the three major regions of the country—North, South, and growing West—but sadly for the United States the man coming into office in March 1857 was James Buchanan who in making up his cabinet became a passive functionary in his own administration. When Buchanan gave prominence to Southern politicians and anti-Douglas Democrats, the stage was set for the dividing of the party and the rise of the Republicans in the North as Douglas Democrats and Lecompton Democrats—named for their support of the pro-slavery constitution for Kansas that was drafted by convention assembled by a rigged election—set the stage for chaotic Presidential contest in 1860. Besides the congressional battle between opponents and supporters for the pro-slavery Kansas constitution, Nevins’ other major focus was the Lincoln-Douglas debates which saw Abraham Lincoln’s emergence on the national scene for the first time as well as detailing what the two politicians spoke about in each debate. Just to through in an additional element to all of this was the Panic of 1857 with its effects in economic terms and political perceptions—whether right or wrong—on all sections of the country. Yet Nevins also wrote about the Dred Scott decision and the Mormon War with their effects on the various elements in the country, the fact that I’m just barely mentioning them shows how much Nevin’s writing made me highlight other things. Honestly, there is so much I learned that I had previously just had a superficial knowledge of.

The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume I reveals how incompetent national leadership exasperated the rising sectional differences while both sides of the divide took different lessons from a economic panic as well as how the growing West were affecting things.

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