An Ungodly War: The Sack of Constantinople & the Fourth Crusade [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by W. B. Bartlett (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
The entire crusading movement was a remarkable combination of religious idealism (or fanaticism) and venality on a grand scale. However, with the Fourth Crusade (1202^-04) all pretenses of "noble" motives died. From its inception, the Crusade was encouraged, financed, and controlled by Venetian merchants for commercial reasons. The consequences were immense, but they did not include the reconquest of the Holy Land. Instead, the Crusade resulted in the brutal sack of Constantinople, the richest city in the Christian world, by an army of drunken, frustrated crusaders. The great eastern Christian Byzantine Empire was fatally weakened, leading to the eventual conquest of the region by the Ottoman Turks. Bartlett, author of God Wills It!: The Illustrated History of the Crusades (1999), has captured the cynicism, savagery, and tragic ironies that lay behind this shameful episode. This is an excellent work of popular history geared to general readers, but scholars will appreciate both the accuracy and insight Bartlett displays. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

The Fourth Crusade was perhaps the darkest hour of the Catholic Church and of religion in the West. In 1204 thousands of men, dispatched by Pope Innocent IV to recover the Holy Places in Palestine, were diverted by the Venetians to the territory of the Christian Byzantine empire. The army sacked Constantinople, then the greatest city of Christendom. Thousands of people lost their lives, buildings were destroyed and treasures looted. The Byzantine government was ousted and a short-lived 'Latin empire' established.

W. B. Bartlett's book tells the whole story of the crusade of 1204. It recounts the apocalyptic events of that year and attempts to explain how and why they happened, and to examine the context in which they occurred. How could an expedition designed with the protection of the 'true faith' and the protection of the souls of those who took part have been so easily diverted to destroy the world's greatest Christian city and so many of its inhabitants? This is the story of how an army that went forth in the name of God lost sight of its fundamental motivations - an object lesson in how a misguided idealism can lead to disaster.

An Ungodly War chronicles the nadir of the Crusading movement in detail. It will be a must-have book for anyone shocked by the depths to which the Crusades - one of history's most controversial enterprises - could sink.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: The History Press; illustrated edition edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750923784
• ISBN-13: 978-0750923781
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #313,725 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Unevenly Written Work, March 23, 2001

By A Customer

I found this book of very uneven quality. Although the author obviously knows his subject, he fails to present it cogently or with fludidity. A too frequent experience was to be jolted into an entirely unrelated idea after the first sentence of a paragraph. The few but glaring grammatical/spelling errors did not help, though that is the falut of the editor and not the author. The maps provided were wholly inadequate to the topic and the information provided by the author. Read this book only if you must absolutely read everything every written about the Fourth Crusade.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, March 5, 2001

By A Customer

This book was a huge help in my research paper on the Fourth Crusade and it lasting effects on Constantinople. There is an abundance of usefull information which is all understandable and easy to read. This is an excellent work of popular history geared tward general readers, but scholars will apperciate the acuracy and insight that Bartlett displays.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Be Wary., April 21, 2001

By A Customer

Just a quick comment. The book seems extremely biased and appears to analyze a medieval event using a variety of modern perspectives, such as nationalism and economic determinism. The author seems to be have overestimated the power of man to control events and underestimated the complexity, unpredictability, and recalcitrance of the events themselves. In addition, although the Latins and Greeks shared a common faith, they disagreed over key theological issues and differed in history, language, and habits. Therefore, one must not conclude that the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade were acting against the same force that drove crusaders to the First Crusade. The Greeks were outsiders to Latin communities, and thus were treated in a manner similar to that of Muslims and heretics.