The Crusaders: The Struggle for the Holy Land

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful and unforgettable trip through history
Review: In The Crusaders: The Struggle For The Holy Land, renowned French archivist and historian Regine Pernoud focuses upon the human aspect by presenting profiles of those who undertook the Crusades ranging from the kings, to the barons, clerks, women, merchants, and paupers. Whether driven by faith, conquest, or greed, their individual and collective perspectives are vividly described, and providing contemporary readers with a detailed and lasting impression of the shock of Christian perspectives created when introduced to the Muslim world. A thoughtful and unforgettable trip through history that virtually puts the reader in this long-ago era, The Crusaders is an ideal introduction for non-specialist general readers.

Rating:
Summary: "Don't Confuse Me with Facts"
Review: This book is a wonderful corrective for two sets of people: (1) Those who idealize the Crusades, the crusaders, and the culture which surrounded and informed them; (2) Those who uncritically villify everything that the folks in the first category idealize.
Pernoud presents the Crusades in all their considerable glory and all their considerable shame. For example, an entire chapter is devoted to the character of St. Louis, the "perfect crusader", who so well embodied everything that was good in the crusader mentality. Juxtaposed to that, we hear of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, the "crusader without faith" who broke into the Thirteenth Century like a walking talking preview of the less gentle times to come -- a herald of Machiavelli, Napolean, and LBJ. As an admirer of the Middle Ages, I had always viewed Frederick II was an aberration -- like an intruder from another planet. But no. Pernoud shows (without a soapbox) that it should not be surprising that a Frederick II should arise -- even in the most civilized of centuries.
Pernoud makes these points, as I said, without a soapbox. He writes sober history -- Jack Webb style. And this sober recital of facts is just what ideologues on my side and on the opposite side really need.