The Crusades (Essential Histories) [Paperback]

David Nicolle (Author)

Book Description

Series: Essential Histories | Publication Date: January 19, 2001

Born amid immense suffering and bloodshed, the Kingdom of Jerusalem remained a battlefield for almost 200 years. The Crusades gave rise to the Military Orders of the Templars and Hospitallers, and were a backdrop to the careers of some of history's most famous leaders including Richard 'The Lionheart' and Saladin. On occasion the savagery of the Crusaders left their opponents reeling, creating frictions that survived for more than 700 years. At the same time, as this book lavishly illustrates, art, architecture and learning all benefited from new knowledge the Crusaders brought back from the East.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A very useful resource, especially, but by no means exclusively, in school and college libraries...these books offer very useful standardised accounts and are presented in very attractive and approachable volumes.
–Reference Reviews --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher

This unique series studies every major war in history looking at all the aspects of war, from how it felt to be a soldier to the lasting impact of the conflict on the world around it.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (January 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841761796
• ISBN-13: 978-1841761794
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 0.2 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #246,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Way too big of a task for a single Essential Histories volume., February 21, 2008

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C. T. Hunter "chips_books" (Gainesville, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Crusades (Essential Histories) (Paperback)

This is the first volume in the enormous Essential Histories series from Osprey Publishing. If you're considering reading these books, I wouldn't recommend starting with this one. If you do, please realize that this one isn't a very good representative of the series. Most of the volumes are excellent, with a good blend of detailed accounts of individual battles, interesting descriptions of historical figures, and informative information about the general setting and attitudes of the time. This volume utterly fails in all of those categories.

I'm not placing all of the blame on the author however. Osprey Publishing was simply a bit overzealous in thinking that it could cover a series of events that took place over hundreds of years in a single 96-page volume. Whereas the Civil War and Napoleonic Wars are covered in four volumes each, and World War II in six, the entire series of individual crusades is covered in a single volume. What you end up with is a very brief skimming of the overall picture and outcome of the Crusades. Hardly any time at all is spent on individual crusades, much less individual battles (which you get so much of in other Essential Histories).

Also, throughout this book the author downplays the importance of the Crusades to the people of the Mediterranean and Middle East. What he fails to adequately portray is the long-standing and powerful beliefs and feelings that these events have cast on history ever since.

The only really good part of this book is the multitude of excellent pictures, showing everything from architecture to weaponry of the time. Still, of the Essential Histories I've read, this was my least favorite and definitely the least informative. I recommend starting with others.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Cliff Notes of military history, April 2, 2006

By 

Hiram Grant "just call me Sam" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Crusades (Essential Histories) (Paperback)

The "Essential Histories" series from Osprey could easily be compared to the Cliff Notes series. They'll give you a nice introduction to a topic you are not familiar with, but no real depth. Most volumns are under 100 pages; therefore, don't expect many "man in the trenches" stories.

A nice introduction, but once again, a bit too much time period to make it one of the better books in this series. But for a 88 page book on the subject, it's well done.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre intro to the Crusades, July 15, 2009

By 

K. Murphy "Fortune favors the Bold" (The thriving metropolis of Masury, OH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Crusades (Elite) (Paperback)

The text of this Osprey title merely rehashs topics that are addressed, in greater detail (and perhaps, greater accuracy) in thousands of other books. Richard Hook's color plates add a lively splash of color, and are accurate if selective in the events and warriors they portray. As others have stated - this is far to grand a topic for a book of 60 pages to attempt to discuss in any detail - this book is a mediocre introduction to the Crusades that is rescued by some exciting artwork.