The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land Paperback – March 8, 2011

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 book is well written and is a great insight into the topic of the Crusades. The book focuses heavily on the early crusades, particularly the first, second, and third, which is understandable as they are the ones that people want to know about. While a lot people are pretty aware of the military engagements fought during the crusades, many are not aware of the political climate of the time, which the book does a great job of explaining. The book also excels in providing great analysis of the battles fought, something that a lot of books and history courses in schools, like ancient world history, don't often focus on. The book covers a lot of material while still keeping you interested in the narrative. Asbridge's work makes for a great gateway book for new or casual readers but if you are looking for a book that will go into great detail and expand your existing knowledge, I highly suggest you look somewhere else.

Having taught U.S. History during my teaching career (now retired), I have long been a fan of everything historical. While I of course knew a bit of the Crusades, I had never studied it in depth. I'm so glad I found this book.From the very beginning, Asbridge gives enough historical background to set the stage for the next 150 years of christian struggle to reclaim the Holy Land, and does it in a clearly-written, easy-to-understand format, which can be enjoyed by non-Crusades scholars and those who are more acquainted with the period.As the author introduces each leading player on both sides of the struggle, he gives us ample insight as to their motivations and preparedness to enter the fight. While I'd been familiar with the name Saladin, it was quite rewarding to learn about him not only as a jihadist with a vengeance for killing Christians, but also as a person with doubts and worries.Having been familiar with the western monarchs who went to the Holy Land, I was not that familiar with the Muslim caliphs and sultans. Because of the difficulty in trying to sort through all the Muslim names and keep them straight, I simply began writing down the name of each character as he was introduced, with a small note reminding myself who he was related to or which geographical area he came from. This helped clarify (for my muddled old mind), who everyone was and made the reading more meaningful to me. I also found maps of the Crusades online and printed two of them out, so I had a good idea in my mind where the lesser-known areas were in relation to Jerusalem. More advanced scholars of this area would certainly not need to do this. And in no way does mentioning my personal "Cliff Notes" stand as an intention to demean the author. It was simply to help me keep straight characters with whom I was previously unfamiliar.I was rather stunned that after the failures of Crusades Three and Four that a Fifth one had occurred, and that apparently none of the westerners taking part in these Crusades seems to have learned from the mistakes of the previous participants. I think that many of us who know only a smattering of Crusade history think that "they went, they saw, they conquered" and only had to return because of eventual re-encroachment by Muslims. Instead, the story is quite different. I was also stunned by the numbers of men in not only the Christian armies, but in the Muslim armies, and was surprised at the great influence the Mongols had secured in the area.The one area in which I would have liked a bit more information was how in the world these Crusaders provisioned themselves on the march to the Holy Land, as they were still moving eastwards through Europe. I can't imagine how groups of thousands of people kept themselves fed during the long months of marching. What did they bring with them to eat along the way? When they came to towns, how would these towns have enough food on hand to feed these troops? Did they herd cattle or other livestock with them as they marched? Did they bring chickens? Did they have "cooks" or did each soldier fare for himself? Of course these are minor curiosities and have nothing to do with the import of the book as a whole, but it's something that made me wonder about how this was all accomplished.Thanks to Asbridge for a wonderfully authoritative account of this period in history, and for writing it in such a way as to appeal to lay persons, such as myself!