An Ungodly War: The Sack of Constantinople & the Fourth Crusade

Rating:
Summary: Very Unevenly Written Work
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Be Wary.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: 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.