The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades

I found this guide to the Crusades to be very well written. It tends to be somewhat on the dry side - published by Oxford University Press, that shouldn't come as any surprise. While somewhat dry at times, it provides the reader with a wealth of quite invaluable information on the Crusades, how they were financed, who participated, their thoughts, battles ... Over all, this is a superb book. I wish that more information would have been provided about the influence of the Crusades on the Inquisitions and on the experiences of the other guys. It takes two to battle and the perspectives of the Monguls and Islamists and Jews and pagans and everybody else ... well, beyond mentioning of the experiences here and there, there wasn't much discussion. Of course, grammar and style were outstanding. The few photographs really didn't provide much information. It could also have benefited from comprehensive maps. I think that this is an excellent resource for the individual who wishes to better understand the Crusades, whether it be someone from the public or an undergraduate or, perhaps even a graduate student of history or religion. I give this an A-.

This is a very important book for people who want to know the facts without stories of romance and chivalry. It is very well organized with chapters dedicated to all the aspects of life from the time of the Crusades, aspects ranging from the military orders in various periods of time to the evolution of crusading literature. I recommend this book for people who need an overview of the period of the Crusades. It is also advisable, in order to comprehend the whole picture of the Crusades, to read opinions from the Muslim side. A very good book in this region is "Arab Historians of the Crusades" (The Islamic World Series) by Francesco Gabrieli.

By:Jonathan Riley-SmithReviewed by:D. WangP.5The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades is a book about you want and don't want to know about the crusades. The book's opening chapters aren't about the actual military action at all. It's about the minds of the crusaders, the songs of the time, the Latin East. It's not until chapter nine that military orders, movements, and actions are mentioned. The book concludes with a comparison of modern day events and the crusades.I liked this book because of the sheer amount of information. on page 86 it says "Men and women, including elderly crusaders, came to Jerusalem to end their days. The charnel chambers in the Hospitallers' ruined twelfth-century cemetry-church at Alcheldamach, just outside Jersalem, are still filled with the bones of pious Christians." It is extremely doubtful you will find this variety of information in a textbook.This book really took the effort to find all the information possible. An entire chapter of the book is devoted to songs about the crusade. There are not many books about a series of wars where an entire chapter is devouted to songs. The book puts a lot a information and visual material in 436 pages. It is very easy to be overwhelmed, and the authors should have made it easier to comprehend.My favorite part of the book is the last chapter. "In a surprising development, however, the theology of force that underpinned crusading has been revived, especially in Latin America, by a militant wing of Christian Liberation." It is amzing how we humans fall from the same things over and over again, and this chapter previews of what might come. I like to compare our present to our past because it makes you realize how many times we've made the same mistake over and over again. Sometimes we just fail to take the past into consideration.

A good collection of essays on a subject which has yet to receive the analysis it deserves.