Review by Choice Review
Although this overview of the concept of European crusading from 1095 to present conflicts has a chronological narrative thread running through it, large sections of the text are character driven, stressing people like Saladin, Emperor Frederick II, et al. Phillips (Royal Holloway, Univ. of London) also tends to stress figures and events out of mainstream military coverage, like Queen Melisende of Jerusalem, the Children's Crusade, the suppression of the Templars, etc. While Christian faith and the desire for salvation started the Crusades, the strong human desire for land, wealth, honor, and adventure also played a large and essential role in their continuation and success. The author tries too hard to identify the medieval crusading movement with the present conflict between radical Islam and the West. Unfortunately, this book will not stand the test of time, as it is chronologically locked into the first decade of the 21st century. This overriding theme will undoubtedly have less significant meaning and interest for future generations. Well written and very readable with a separate introduction and conclusion, 40 pages of notes, and an up-to-date bibliography divided into primary and secondary sources. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers/public libraries. G. G. Guzman emeritius, Bradley University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
THE villains of history seem relatively easy to understand; however awful their deeds, their motives remain recognizable. But the good guys, those their contemporaries saw as heroes or saints, often puzzle and appall. They did the cruelest things for the loftiest of motives; they sang hymns as they waded through blood. Nowhere, perhaps, is this contradiction more apparent than in the history of the Crusades. When the victorious knights of the First Crusade finally stood in Jerusalem, on July 15, 1099, they were, in the words of the chronicler William of Tyre, "dripping with blood from head to foot." They had massacred the populace. But in the same breath, William praised the "pious devotion . . . with which the pilgrims drew near to the holy places, the exultation of heart and happiness of spirit with which they kissed the memorials of the Lord's sojourn on earth." It's tempting to dismiss the crusaders' piety as sheer hypocrisy. In fact, their faith was as pure as their savagery. As Jonathan Phillips observes in his excellent new history - in case we needed reminding at this late date - "faith lies at the heart of holy war." For some, of course, this will be proof that something irremediably lethal lies at the heart of all religious belief. But the same fervor that led to horrific butchery, on both the Christian and the Muslim sides, also inspired extraordinary efforts of self-sacrifice, of genuine heroism and even, at rare moments, of simple human kindness. Phillips, professor of crusading history at the University of London, doesn't try to reconcile these extremes; he presents them in all their baffling disparity. This approach gives a cool, almost documentary power to his narrative. At the same time, "Holy Warriors" is what Phillips calls a "character driven" account. The book is alive with extravagantly varied figures, from popes both dithering and decisive to vociferous abbots and conniving kings; saints rub shoulders with "flea pickers." If Richard the Lion-Hearted and Saladin dominate the account, perhaps unavoidably, there are also vivid cameos of such lesser-known personalities as the formidable Queen Melisende of Jerusalem and her rebellious sister Alice of Antioch. Heraclius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, is glimpsed in an embarrassing moment when a brazen messenger announces to the assembled high court where he sits in session that his mistress, Pasque, has just given birth to a daughter. Phillips is especially good portraying 12th-century Muslim personalities -from Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami, a preacher of jihad, whose fiery exhortations sound alarmingly familiar, to the refined Usama ibn Munqidh, poet and man of letters, and the grumpy but astute Ibn Jubayr, a sharp-eyed traveler through Crusader territories. "Holy Warriors" brings these otherwise exotic figures thumpingly back to life. About the assimilation of the Franks, many of whom chose to settle in the Holy Land, Usama could write, "He who was born a stranger is now as one born here; he who was born an alien has become a native." The battle lines were sharply drawn, the campaigns were pitiless, each side had contempt for the others' beliefs; and yet, somehow, on the margins of hostility, a grudging accommodation, if not friendship, sometimes developed. Phillips concentrates on the seven "official" crusades, from 1095 to the final disastrous campaigns of Louis IX (St. Louis) of France in 1248-54 and 1270, but he also describes the fiasco of the socalled Children's Crusade as well as the horrifying Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of southwest France. As he notes, "holy war" was as often as not waged against coreligionists; Catholics against Cathars, Sunnis against Shiites. In the rigid, polarized mentality of the holy warrior, any deviation can signify a dangerous otherness. This is the best recent history of the Crusades; it is also an astute depiction of a frightening cast of mind. It's tempting to dismiss the crusaders' piety. In fact, their faith was as pure as their savagery. Eric Ormsby's new collection of essays, "Fine Incisions," will be published next fall.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [March 14, 2010]
Review by Booklist Review
Historians and laypersons continue to dispute the causes and even the moral justification for the 200-year effort by Europeans to recapture the so-called Holy Land. The immense impact of the Crusades, however, is undeniable. The horizons of Europeans were expanded, feudal societies were transformed, and the peoples of the Levant have inherited a legacy of bitterness toward the invading Christian Franks. Phillips, professor of crusading history at the University of London, provides a compact survey of the crusading movement that, unlike most such accounts, includes the initiative to reconquer Muslim Spain and suppress Christian heresy in southern France. Since he aims his work at general readers, Phillips employs a fast-moving narrative, but he also pauses to focus special attention upon topics and personalities of special interest, including instances of Muslim-Christian cooperation, divisions within Muslim and Christian forces, and characters both colorful and controversial. A well-written work succeeding in explaining a complex and vitally important era.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
University of London historian and History Channel contributor Phillips (The Second Crusade) superbly condenses the four centuries of the Crusades into a single, easily accessible volume. Islamic as well as Western sources are utilized to demonstrate the similarities between jihad and crusading. The narrative weaves a tragic tapestry, beginning with the bloodily successful First Crusade, through the establishment of the Crusader states, to the failure of subsequent Crusades, the victories of the Muslim "counter-Crusade," and the continuing legacy of religious and cultural hatred that permeates the Holy Land. Individuals such as the "charismatic" Queen Melisende of Jerusalem; the "Leper King," Baldwin IV; the Muslim warriors Nur ad-Din and Saladin; England's Richard the Lionheart; and many others play major and minor roles in the creation of a past that still lives today. Episodes including the "breathtaking naivete" of the Children's Crusade and the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula are effectively described. Concluding chapters examine the impact of the Crusades since the 15th century. Regrettably, little attention is given to the crusading spirit resurrected by the 1571 Battle of Lepanto. But this is an outstanding summary of centuries of religious strife, the effects of which are with us still. 8 pages of b&w photos, 5 maps. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Written for general rather than academic readers, this work is centered more on character than on chronology. Though Phillips (Crusading history, Royal Holloway, Univ. of London) follows the overall time line of the Crusades, his narrative often pauses to provide extensive sketches of figures and events not part of most popular histories of the Crusades. Phillips also continues past the ostensible "end" of the Crusading era in 1291, exploring some of the later Christian-Muslim battles that occurred outside the Middle East and analyzing how the cultural idea of Crusading developed as both action and metaphor from the medieval era to the modern day. Though somewhat brief considering the vast amount of history it covers, this work succeeds in providing a vivid and engaging narrative for a general audience while demonstrating excellent scholarship and a balanced presentation of Christian and Muslim viewpoints.-KM (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fresh, no-nonsense take on the causes, human cost and continued relevance of the medieval Crusades. Both religious belief and endemic violence characterized Europe in 1095 when Pope Urban II called for a "just war" against the alarming rise of the Muslims. Employing inflated language about sacrifice and the promise of celestial rewards, the pope gathered an army of 60,000 "Christian soldiers" to regain Jerusalem. They succeeded, but Phillips (Crusading History/Univ. of London; The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom, 2007, etc.) shows how ensuing crusades failed miserably, despite the zeal of the faithful. The Second, initiated by Pope Eugenius III and Bernard of Clairvaux, ended in a humiliating retreat from Damascus; the launch of a Third Crusade by King Richard the Lionheart was in response to Saladin's retaking of Jerusalem; Pope Innocent III's call for a Fourth Crusade, led by the Venetians, ended in the shocking sack of Constantinople in 1204; Frederick II's abysmal Fifth Crusade was thwarted by the Egyptians, yet he eventually finagled his way into Jerusalem by sheer diplomacy; pious King Louis IX's determined last crusades in the Holy Land encountered significant Muslim resistance but gained him sainthood. Along the way there were tertiary struggles against the heretics, such as Innocent III's rallying against the Cathars, the rise of the Inquisition, led by the Dominican friars, and Ferdinand and Isabella's eventual regaining of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors. Phillips wisely incorporates Columbus's mandate to spread the Good Word across the seas as another significant crusade. In two terrific concluding chapters, the author traces the resurgence of the crusading metaphor into modern times, largely thanks to Sir Walter Scott and the Romantics, and considers the incendiary war language of todayas jihad and as used by President Bush in asserting a "moral right." A straightforward, pertinent study replete with passionate personages both Christian and Muslim. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
