"God's War" is a long but highly readable account of this extensive
back-and-forth struggle. It is an impressive achievement, a work
that manages to tie together an extraordinary number of threads
across nearly half a millennium of European history. Although it
can be taken as a response to Pope Benedict XVI's comments at
Regensburg, it is more properly read as an extended rejoinder to
Steven Runciman's classic three-volume "History of the Crusades,"
published in the early 1950s, a long and colorful account that is
nonetheless studded with judgments that now seem prejudiced and
amateurish. Tyerman, by contrast, is never amateurish. His
knowledge of the period is encyclopedic, and his judgments are
sharp, astute, and fair--which is to say unsparing--to both camps.
He neither vilifies Islam nor engages in the easy Euro-bashing that
is the obverse of Islamophobia. With so many people succumbing to
subjectivism these days, it is bracing to come across a historian
who remains resolutely abo
"God's War" is the new standard in the field...Adjectives for [it]
almost fail. "Comprehensive," "monumental," and "epic" come to
mind, and they are appropriate but scarcely adequate. In brief,
this is a work by a master historian.--Alfred J. Andrea"CT Review"
(07/01/2007)
A magisterial work...it is a shoo-in to become this generation's
definitive history of the original Crusades, a series of military
expeditions that temporarily returned the Holy Land to Christian
rule in the Middle Ages. Hefty, encyclopedic and a darn good read,
Tyerman's book has the rarest of virtues among myriad treatments of
the subject: It doesn't bend history to preconceptions.--Ron
Grossman"Chicago Tribune" (10/29/2006)
Anyone who likes knights, castles and battles as much as I do will
enjoy Christopher Tyerman's masterpiece "God's War", a history of
the Crusades written with great breadth, clarity and human
sympathy: one of the achievements of the year.--Dominic
Sandbrook"Daily Telegraph" (12/09/2006)
Challenging traditional conceptions of the Crusades, e.g., the
failure to retain Jerusalem, Tyerman believes that it was the
weakening of papal power and the rise of secular governments in
Europe that finally doomed the crusading impulse. This is a
marvelously conceived, written, and supported book.--Robert J.
Andrews"Library Journal" (09/15/2006)
Christopher Tyerman...has written a tome that...draws on the most
recent scholarship and offers fresh insights, demolishing myths
galore.--A. G. Noorani"Frontline" (05/04/2007)
Christopher Tyerman, who teaches medieval history in Oxford, offers
in his new and massive study of the Crusades as a whole a welcome
synthesis for the general reader...Full of fascinating
detail..."God's War" is a first-rate, scholarly, up-to-date, and
highly readable survey of the entire crusading movement...In the
gullible age of "The Da Vinci Code", Tyerman offers a sane,
informed, and gripping account of one of the most characteristic
and most extraordinary manifestations of the Christian Middle
Ages.--Eamon Duffy"New York Review of Books" (10/19/2006)
Christopher Tyerman's "God's War: A New History of the Crusades" is
a doorstop of a book, a mammoth effort to retell, based on modern
scholarship, the story of how Western Christendom made war to wrest
the Holy Lands from Muslim hands. As we all know, this isn't
considered ancient history in the Middle East.--Fritz Lanham
"Houston Chronicle "
Christopher Tyerman's "God's War" is comprehensive, fascinating,
and timely. It deflates comparisons of current U.S. strategies with
the Crusades. True, the participation of religious in battle (like
Odo on the Bayeux Tapestry) is noteworthy, but so is Tyerman's
questioning of the cliche 'Age of Faith.' Indeed, while these books
make the Middle Ages seem real, they also make it seem different,
and our capacity to entertain the differences is morally
crucial.--Tom D'Evelyn "Providence Journal "
This thick book compares favorably to Sir Steven Runciman's
three-volume "A History of the Crusades" (1951-54), but where
Runciman, writing a half century ago, saw the Crusades as
Christianity's moral failure, Tyerman sees a violent era: neither
Christians nor Moslems were peaceful, and both faced dangerous
enemies...In addition to persuasive revisionist interpretations of
individual crusades, Tyerman treats the broader scope of crusading,
including Spain, the Balkans, and the Baltic. Most importantly for
historians, the author sees nothing in the Crusades than can inform
modem politics.--W. L. Urban"Choice" (03/01/2007)
Tyerman, an Oxford scholar, combines vigorous argument and nuanced
analysis in this deeply learned chronicle of the Crusades...It's
the best single-volume treatment of this still-controversial and
fraught subject.--Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz"The Atlantic"
(11/01/2006)
With rekindled controversy about Western invasions of the Middle
East, the Crusades of the late Middle Ages take on unanticipated
relevance. It is thus a real boon for this strikingly effective
book to appear at this time. The key to Tyerman's signal success is
his ability to explain both the vicious brutality and the serious
Christian altruism that were so intimately intertwined in the
crusading experience and that have left such a tangled legacy for
Muslim-Christian relations to this day.--Mark A. Noll"Christian
Century" (10/17/2006)
This is likely to replace Steven Runciman's 50-year-old "History of
the Crusades" as the standard work. Tyerman, lecturer in medieval
history at Oxford University, demolishes our simplistic
misconceptions about that series of ferocious campaigns in the
Middle East, Muslim Spain and the pagan Baltic between 1096 and
1500..."God's War" is that very rare thing: a readable and vivid
history written with the support of a formidable scholarly
background, and it deserves to reach a wide audience.
and human sympathy: one of the achievements of the year.
broader scope of crusading, including Spain, the Balkans, and the
Baltic. Most importantly for historians, the author sees nothing in
the Crusades than can inform modem politics.
different, and our capacity to entertain the differences is morally
crucial.
history written with the support of a formidable scholarly
background, and it deserves to reach a wide audience.
legacy for Muslim-Christian relations to this day.
the crusading impulse. This is a marvelously conceived, written,
and supported book.
Ages. Hefty, encyclopedic and a darn good read, Tyerman's book has
the rarest of virtues among myriad treatments of the subject: It
doesn't bend history to preconceptions.
Christendom made war to wrest the Holy Lands from Muslim hands. As
we all know, this isn't considered ancient history in the Middle
East.
Combines vigorous argument and nuanced analysis in this deeply
learned chronicle of the Crusades...the best single-volume
treatment of this still-controversial and fraught subject.
This strikingly effective book explains the vicious brutality and
the serious Christian altruism so intimately intertwined in the
crusading experience
Tyerman offers a sane, informed, and gripping account of one of the
most characteristic and most extraordinary manifestations of the
Christian Middle Ages.
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