In "The Crusades..." Thomas Asbridge achieves the rare feat of compiling most of the worthwhile knowledge on the Crusades into a single, albeit hefty, volume, without boring the reader. I was initially hesitant to purchase this book because, as a medical student, I figured a 700-page, scholarly-looking tome would end up getting shelved 30 pages in, in favor of some lighter nighttime reading material. Eventually, beset by the lack of high-quality books on The Crusades available on the Kindle, I finally decided to give it a try. It was a great decision; I found "The Crusades" to be a fantastic and engrossing read.
Asbridge manages to engage the reader not by presenting a mere overview of events - as is the case in God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades; an excellent read, but one that gives only a cursory glance towards details - but by constructing a masterfully entertaining narrative. The Crusades are a fascinating story; the quality of any book on the subject is determined by the author's skill at collating the information, not on the subject matter. And Asbridge excels at organizing this enormous corpus; he's also the rare wordsmith (why use proximity when propinquity is so... close at hand?) who is also a gifted storyteller, balancing the proper amount of detail necessary to gain an educated academic understanding of the subject with the needs of a narrative to flow smoothly. I can't emphasize this enough - in another author's hands, this level of detail might be uncomfortable and one might feel as though they are slogging through the book, and that's what makes the book so rewarding. I feel as though I've gained an extraordinary amount of knowledge without having to put up with the run-on sentences and unclear and jumbled thought processes often found in serious academic histories.
Asbridge also manages to frame the subject extraordinarily well. I've read several other books on The Crusades, and listened to a full lecture course on the subject from The Great Courses. I found unanswered questions answered, and I felt that Asbridge covered everything quite well and fairly. Asbridge shows no tendency towards bias on either end of the spectrum, and equal time is devoted to both the concepts of Crusade and that of Jihad - something I found very interesting. In fact, the level of detail presented on the Muslim side surpasses anything I've seen anywhere else. There are almost no details on the non-canonical or even heretical crusades, but this is appropriate - this book is the history of the war for the holy land, not the history of Crusading. The initial evolution of the idea of crusading, the typical motives of the crusaders, and the military realities in both the Muslim and Christian world are given sufficient attention so that no portion of the core story of the Wars feels "orphaned" from reality. But there is definitely a conscious effort to keep the book within its bounds, and there is no detailed discussion of Richard's troubles on the home front, for example. Enough to keep you informed, yes - but you're not buying a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine or John.
In sum, it would be inappropriate to label this book an overview of events. While not exhaustive in its detail, you'd be hard pressed to find any better bang for your page on the entire topic of the Crusades, from start to finish. I would urge any student of history who is considering this book to give it a shot. "The Crusades" would make a both a fantastic introduction and a fitting capstone to any exploration of The Crusades.
The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
4.4 | 1,598 ratings
Price: 40.94
Last update: 12-29-2024
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Top reviews from the United States
ReidA fully accessible but scholarly-accomplished history of the Crusades
sridhar r bommareddyGreat read for someone new to the subject
doc peterson