Thoughts on a Connected Fourteenth Century

As to be expected in collective volumes organized around a theme like this one, the concluding commentary aims to compare and contextualize the chap-ters. Scales, locations, sources, and methods of the studies vary but two main con-clusions can be drawn: natural events are found to have had significant impacts on fourteenth-century societies; and the likelihood of some linkages among both wide-spread and local natural and cultural phenomena deserves continued purposeful investigation. Analytical concepts of ‘teleconnections’ and ‘crisis’ are explored and critiqued as tools for understanding this historic period. Some directions for further research are indicated.