In this excellent popular history, medieval historian Tyerman offers a short introduction to the Crusades, touching on the most salient features and helping readers understand why it's so important to ferret out from all the lore what really happened. While it's a tall order to present more than four centuries of
wars spanning three continents, Tyerman rises to the task with aplomb, noting early on that "much of what passes in public as knowledge of the Crusades is either misleading or false." The Crusades were not, he says, solely
wars against Islam, and their main purpose wasn't to impose Western economic or political leadership, especially since "there existed no strategic or material interest for the knights of the west to campaign in Judea." As the book's second half makes clear, the Crusades need to be understood as religious holy
wars conducted by individuals who were infused by utter certainty that their actions aligned wholly with
God's plan. Tyerman writes engagingly, and numerous maps and illustrations help to support his story—especially since, as he tells us, "iconography is never innocent." A sharply opinionated concluding essay traces the impact of the Crusades through the Protestant Reformation, Enlightenment and 19th-century romanticism to the present, arguing that Bush and bin Laden are "co-heirs to the legacy of a 19th-century European construct" of the Crusades.
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Review
Tales concerning knights have always carried an undeniable whiff of romance about them. Crusader knights even more so. As depicted by novels and Hollywood
movies alike, they were dashing fellows who marched off bravely to the Holy Land intent on liberating it from the hands of the
godless infidel hoards. That image is overdue a reassessment in the modern age, when holy
war has once again become an unpleasant reality. This is the task that has been undertaken by Oxford historian Christopher Tyerman. He chops away ruthlessly at the myth to uncover the nuggets of truth at its core. The Crusades could have been an extreme act of religious faith. Alternatively they may have simply been a symptom of European colonialism. Whatever else they were, the Crusades symbolise what fear of the unknown can do to the most rational of societies. A classic case of the "Them and Us" syndrome. (Kirkus UK)
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