Mirror of the Past

This two-volume pairing presents two narrative histories by Barbara W. Tuchman. One follows fourteenth-century Europe through plague, the Hundred Years' War, papal schism, mercenary companies, and popular revolt, using the French noble Enguerrand de Coucy as a recurring figure across courts and battlefields. The other studies a recurring political pattern: rulers who pursue policies against their own interest, from the Trojans' acceptance of the wooden horse through the Renaissance papacy, the British loss of the American colonies, and American decision-making in Vietnam. The set is comparative narrative history, not a memoir and not a single continuous chronicle.

Bound in black buckram with a repeat pattern of small fleurs-de-lys in gold. Map endleaves. 2. The March of Folly. 16 pages of plates. Bound in black buckram with a repeat pattern of wheel-like ornaments in gold. Orange-brown endleaves. Gold two-volume slipcase titled in black.