Platypus D'Arrington

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I have a book to recommend for all you history buffs and fans of the mediaevals out there: Barbara Tuckman's "A Distant Mirror, the Calamitous 14th Century". Tuckman's history is a little dated in terms of theory, so take her portrait with a grain of salt, but the work is intriguing and a good practical background for how the ideas of the mediaevals played out in actual society. Above all, Tuckman doesn't seek to set down a definitive picture of the 14th Century, but rather to show the tensions and competing forces that framed it. 'Sides, the books just plain well-written and fun. The Platypus gets medieval, but only if you try and take his Pizza first...

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