Product Description

Crusading fervour gripped Europe for over 200 years, creating one of the most extraordinary, vivid episodes in world history. Whether the Crusades are regarded as the most romantic of Christian expeditions, or the last of the barbarian invasions, they have fascinated generations ever since, and their legacy of ideas and imagery has resonated through the centuries, inspiring Hollywood movies and great works of literature. Even today, to invoke the Crusades is to stir deep cultural myths, assumptions and prejudices. Yet despite their powerful hold on our imaginations, our knowledge of them remains obscured an distorted by time. Were the Crusaders motivated by spiritual rewards, or by greed? Were the Crusades an experiment in European colonialism, or a manifestation of religious love? How were they organized and founded? With customary flair and originality, Christopher Tyerman picks his way through the many debates to present a clear and lively discussion of the Crusades; bringing together issues of colonialism, cultural exchange, economic exploitation, and the relationship between past and present.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155347 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

Irish Times, 16 September 2006
Excellent

Review
Small but impressive (Soldier Magazine )

About the Author
Dr. Christopher Tyerman is lecturer in Medieval History at Hertford College and New College, Oxford. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and editor of 'Oxford Historian'. He has published extensively on crusading history.

Customer Reviews

God help us all
I'm a great fan of the "very short introduction" series, published in a nice pocketable format and covering a huge range of topics. But editor and author must take heavy blame for this impenetrable monstrosity.

As pointed out by a previous reviewer, this book was written originally for a knowledgeable audience and has been simply rebranded as an "introduction". It isn't. Not a bit of it. Tyerman races through the events of the crusades and then attempts a long and excessively detailed analysis of their genesis and impact.

I consider this rebranding act pretty poor form on the part of OUP. But looking at the text, one starts to wonder who could have found even that original work an enjoyable read. The sentences are interminable and full of incongruous and utterly preposterous metaphors. I've plucked a (believe it or not) representative sentence from Tyerman's labyrinthine prose.

"Although the rulers' rhetoric spoke differently, with popes, politicians, and chroniclers presenting a particular frontier myth of heroic conquest and battle to justify the Franks' presence and excite Western support, Outremer society, while sustained by this cohesive ideology of 'exiles' for the faith, reflected a far more humdrum diversity of experience than such crude caricatures allow."

Well thanks for clearing that up Chris.

Tyerman is writing this as a work of high literature in itself and it is writing to be ashamed of. Academic or not, and I was till recently an academic myself, the purpose of writing for others must be to explain and to elucidate. When writers resort to pretentious obfuscation one is drawn only to the conclusion there simply isn't very much to explain.

I won't give up on the v.s.i. series since I've had plenty of good experiences as well (the first world war introduction in particular is excellent). But I must register my strongest condemnation for this title, for its author (I feel quite sorry for his students in Oxford), and for the feeble work of its editors at OUP. Avoid at all costs!

Good if overly-academic
Tyerman's The Crusades: A Very Short Introduction was not, in fact written to be a very short introduction, and was first prublished as "Fighting for Christendom" in 2004. This is where the problem seems to lie. Repackaged as a VSI, it attracts new and general readers who expect it to be what it says on the cover. They then have to battle with this overly-academic text. I am sure this book is perfectly brillant in itself, but it doesn't really work as a very short introduction. The writer asumes, fairly enough as it seems he didn't know it would become a VSI, a good knowledge of medevial history, academic terms and world geography. This clearly alienates some, like me, who thought it would be a much simpler read as the title suggests: easing you in, rather than jumping in head first.

However, the books is still actually really quite good. Speaking as someone who knows next to nothing about medevial history and is not familar with every academic term under the sun, the book was still very informative and interesting. There is no doubt if you are like me you will sometimes have to battle with paragraphs to grasp meaning, but somehow things did fall into place. Tyerman is clearly an expert who makes some very intriguing points in historography, seeking to dispell misconceptions, as a result of what must be extensive research and a genuine interest for the topic. Let's put it this way: criticism aside, I can't deny I enjoyed reading it.

Difficult, not exactly a very short introduction, but most definitely good.

heavy going!
this is not what i expected from an 'introduction' to the crusades, and i'm not exactly sure who its written for.

firstly, there is the content. i would expect an 'introduction' to provide an interesting overview to the crusades, marked with a few fascinating insights and investigations into the events and personalities involved. and maybe a few entertaining anecdotes to bring it all to life? instead, it is a lightning fast, skimping overview of the actual crusades (approximately 10 pages) followed by a long, labourious dissection of the historiography of the holy wars which occupies the remaining 90% of the book. secondly, there is the writing; long sentances, punctuated by innumerable clauses, complex concepts, massive, often latin, words and advanced academic theory. this rapidly gets tiresome for the 'casual' reader.

And this is the very essence of the problem - its just all so heavy and academic. i did a degree in medieval history, studying the crusades in great depth, and just wanted an entertaining refresher 10 years on.
This was not entertaining, nor in any way a 'refresher'.

it is not without its merits though. it does really get into the essence of the crusades, the reasons, the age, the philosophical/religious background and the crusaders' motivations. (although goes way too far into details for an 'intro'.) and the way it eventually compares and contrasts crusading reality and myth to the current state of international politics (ie iraq etc) is geuninely fascinating.

if you are a medieval student preparing to study the crusades, then this is not a bad place to start. (although not the best.) but if you casually looking into the crusades as a matter of interest - look elsewhere. this is way, way to heavy going and far too obsessed with historiography and historical post-crusade argument to offer an entertaining, largely factual account of the crusades.