The Crusades
A Very Short Introduction

Crusade is not even a word in the Middle Ages. Today it’s applied to any vigorous good cause. But if you inspect the history, the real crusades are hardly for good causes. Historians agree on 5 numbered ones. The 1st crusade is the best remembered. It was politically motivated by Alexius I of Byzanti......more

You have to drive on past the first chapters which seem horribly bad for a book that professes to be an introduction to the Crusades. What OUP ought to have done is to retitle the book once they got the manuscript. Tyerman in fact wrote The Idea of Crusading: A Very Short Introduction. There are gre......more

A very level headed intro to the Crusades. The section on the intellectual basis of holy war dating back to the Roman period was super interesting!......more

Interesting- and the title was correct- it was a short introduction. This is an achievement in and of itself, considering the geographical and historical expanse of the Crusades. But, this isn't a book for the average reader. The book reads like it was written for academics. As a previous reviewer n......more

This is sort of a hard book to review. On the one hand, it is a clinically written and informative book around the topic of the Crusades, it’s written by a highly respected authority on the subject and it’s short. And that’s kind of what it’s supposed to be. So it should get 5 stars. However, when I......more