Customer Reviews

Barbarians, Marauders, And Infidels: The Ways Of Medieval Warfare

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In Barbarians, Marauders, And Infidels: The Ways Of Medieval Warfare, historian Antonio Santosuosso (Professor Emeritus of History, University of Western Ontario, Canada) draws upon his many years of research and expertise to provide readers with an inherently fascinating survey of medieval warfare ranging from the fifth through the fifteenth century. More than just a catalog of conflicts, Professor Santosuosso examines the changes and the motivations of these conflicts with respect to their political, cultural, and social contexts. Of special interest is the understanding of medieval warfare as a means of carrying out religious imperatives, securing wealth, and enhancing personal reputations. This wonderfully written history expands beyond Europe to careful consider Muslim warfare from a Muslim perspective before the advent of the Crusades. Of seminal value to academia, Barbarians, Marauders, And Infidels is also very highly recommended for non-specialist general readers with an interest in Medieval History.

Santosuo has given us a wonderfully researched history of medieval warfare. The book covers from the Barbarian tribes of the 6th century to the Mongol and Turk empires of the 15th century. Most of the major military engagements are covered along with the notable leaders of the respective periods. I found the general discussions of the political and military situations very interesting. But I got bogged down in the details concerning the make up of various armies. This work is a highly detailed account of tactics, formations and arms and equipment. Anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of medieval warfare will enjoy this book.

This is the kind of book that really turns my crank... obscure barbarian tribes, weapon use and tactics, tales of lost dynasties, imperial decline and the advent of new tribes, races and their own eventual conquest and submission.

The book has all of that.. unfortunately it suffers from an incomplete development of almost all of its major theses. Its review of tactics is most notable and I was impressed with the detial of the political organisation, and military mobilisation that Santosousso uses, but was left wondering how he defined his major thematic chapters.

The book starts at the end of the latter Roman Empire and the clashes between Rome and the Goths, then those between the Goths and Longobards, Byzantines and other barbarian tribes. These in turn switch to those of the Franks, the ascendency of the Muslim tribes and then the advent of the Medieval Christian warriors and their eventual demise with the nascent advent of citizen armies. All of this is great, but the narrative is marred by

1) lack of continuity: whole chuncks of history are leaped and interesting tactics and peoples totally ignored. ie. mongols are totally left out which is odd considering that there is a whole chapter dedicated to those perrenial losers of history, the Magyars.

2) The author throws in the occassional bloody story, but really once he gets our blood up with anecdotal elegance he switches to military organisation descriptions. These are fine but one gets the feeling that we would rather be reading some tales of blood and glory.

3) The description of miliary tactics and organisation, though good, omits a fundemental question: how were some of the tribes able to conquer others, and why did others decline?

I did like the grand historical sweep of the book and it did hold my interest most of the time. I guess the real problem I had with this book is that I was just expecting much more than Santosousso offerred me... I felt slightly famished after reading it... like eating an appetiser and then being told it was really the main course...

Fun book! This is a fascinating time period to me and this book is very helpful in my quest for knowledge.

This book is ambitious which is great. My main problem is that it is rambling. The author seems to want to paint a great canvas of Medieval Warfare but every time be begins to reach a crescendo he retreats into a dialogue of minutiae that has nothing to do with the over riding theme.

This book has a catalog list of battles, tribes and tactics. Too bad they are not connected. I found his writing style very difficult to stay interested.

I also found the lack of Mongol History in the book interesting. The Mongols had excellent strategies for dealing with Islamic jihadists. What no description here.

Clarence

The best thing about this book is the way the author is able to tell a story in an entertaining and easy to read manner. While the book is lacking in depth and completeness of the topic, it makes up for it with vignettes that keep the text from getting stale. For a history book, it was a fun read. Better as an intro book or light historical reading than as a scholarly text. I'll probably pick up his other books when I get the chance.

Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Wasy of Medieval Warfare is an excellent novel about the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the chaos that it created. From the Germanic trips surging across the Rhine to the Muslim Armies that stormed out of Arabia to conquer the entire Middle East, this novel is a must for anybody who has a thirst for knowldge about what happened when Rome fell.