Customer Reviews

From Coloman the Learned to Bela 111

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Good Points: This book covers the reigns of the 12th century kings of Hungary following a straightforward reign-by-reign approach. It is well researched, so if you're interested in the period, you'll find the facts that you want in here. You probably can't find this amount of detail in another English-language book, and I certainly knew much more about this period than I did before I opened the book.

Downsides: It's expensive and not very long -- presumably inevitable for a small monograph. The writing is a bit unpolished (I suspect that the author is writing in his second language) although there is never a problem in understanding what is being said. The book is stronger on facts than analysis (it would be interesting, for example, to know why the Byzantine emperor Manuel I was so determined to overthrow Stephen III).

I also thought that the space used for the two chapters that did not focus on a single ruler would have been nmore effectively devoted to a couple of extra reigns (either before or after the ones covered). One was on the laws of Ladislas I; without a chapter on Ladislas's reign, it just didn't fit. The other was on the investiture controversy. That story wasn't specific to Hungary, and has been told elsewhere.