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Rating:  Summary: Rave reviews for Chasing the Heretics Review: "Recommended for all travel collections." --Library Journal" Believing in a world in which good and evil were a duality, the Cathars were proscribed, slain at sword point, burned alive or otherwise slaughtered during the Albigensian Crusade (1208 - 1229). Though one of the Catholic Church's bloodiest enterprises, this domestic crusade does not loom large in too many minds today...Yet it is well worth revisiting as it tragically reflects so much of the suppression, military brutality, heroic resistance, faith unto death, betrayals and massacres... The reader is richly rewarded by this finely written memoir of events that in their day preoccupied popes and kings." --ForeWord Magazine
Rating:  Summary: CHASING SOMETHING OTHER THAN HERETICS Review: I had been searching for a good summary of the history of this region of France and for detailed information on the Cathars during the Middle Ages. This book provides an excellent summary that serves as a starting point for further, detailed research. American schools seldom mention the Albigensian Crusade and the annihilation of the Cathar faith. This book tells the story of the Cathars in a very readable account with the added benefit of a modern travel guide. With my map of the Languedoc, I followed the author on his journey and made extensive notes for further research. The reader will get a very good sense of the life and times of the Cathars and the persecution they suffered. This book works as both a travel guide and as a very readable history of an otherwise unknown period of time. I recommend it highly.
Rating:  Summary: Very readable account of the life and times of the Cathars Review: I had been searching for a good summary of the history of this region of France and for detailed information on the Cathars during the Middle Ages. This book provides an excellent summary that serves as a starting point for further, detailed research. American schools seldom mention the Albigensian Crusade and the annihilation of the Cathar faith. This book tells the story of the Cathars in a very readable account with the added benefit of a modern travel guide. With my map of the Languedoc, I followed the author on his journey and made extensive notes for further research. The reader will get a very good sense of the life and times of the Cathars and the persecution they suffered. This book works as both a travel guide and as a very readable history of an otherwise unknown period of time. I recommend it highly.
Rating:  Summary: CHASING SOMETHING OTHER THAN HERETICS Review: I HAVE VISITED THE AREA, AND WANTED TO READ MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY. THE REVIEW WAS PROMISING, BUT THE BOOK DID NOT DELIVER A BALANCED OR INSIGHTFUL APPROACH TO THE SUBJECT MATTER. HE ADMITS HE DID NOT RESEARCH THE MATTER WELL (REFERS TO A ILL WRITTEN BOOK AS ONE OF HIS GUIDES), ONLY VISITS THE AREAS NORTH OF THE CANAL DU MIDI (EXCEPT FOR ONE BRIEF EXCURSION TO MONTSEGUR, SPENDS MOST OF HIS TIME DEALING WITH HIS FALLING OUT WITH CATHOLICISM RATHER THAN THE COMPLEX MATTER OF WHAT THE CATHARS WERE REALLY ABOUT. THERE ARE EXCELLENT BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT (RENE NELLI...UNFORTUNATELY ONLY AVAILABLE IN FRENCH)..THE LAMBERT BOOK IS A MUCH BETTER INVESTMENT. THERE ARE MANY BOOKS THAT WOULD HAVE ENLARGED AND ENHANCED HIS UNDERSTANDING, HAD HE BOTHERED TO LOOK AND READ. FOR SOMEONE GENUINELY INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT, CHECK OUT WEBSITES FOR OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS. THE INFO (AND BOOKS) ARE THERE, AND WELL WORTH THE TIME.
Rating:  Summary: For armchair travelers and history buffs alike Review: Rion Klawinski blends history and travel in the south of France in writing Chasing The Heretics: A Modern Journey Through The Medieval Languedoc. This remarkably articulate and thoroughly engaging work is part history and part travelogue as Klawinski begins his journey in search of the facts surrounding a murder that happened in 1209, traces the steps of the pacifist Cathars (a 13th century religious sect); and the anti-Cathar Albigensian Crusade. Klawinski uncovers an almost forgotten history of a group of doomed Christians whose influence is still felt in the picturesque Languedoc region to this very day. The reader is treated to a sense of daily life as it was lived almost eight hundred years ago, as well as the ruggedly beauty country side, vibrant cities, and picturesque villages of the present. Chasing The Heretics is enthusiastically recommended reading for armchair travelers and history buffs alike!
Rating:  Summary: Really, quite good Review: The reader from Los Angeles is, I think, a little too strident. This is not a definitive history of the Cathars. It is not meant to be. It is an ambling and amiable personal tour to some of the sites associated with the Albigensian Crusade and is really quite good. Read in conjunction with Zoe Oldenbourg's Massacre at Montsegur.
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