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Paperback The First Crusade: A New History Book

ISBN: 0195189051

ISBN13: 9780195189056

The First Crusade: A New History

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Book Overview

On the last Tuesday of November 1095, Pope Urban II delivered an electrifying speech that launched the First Crusade. His words set Christendom afire. Some 100,000 men, from knights to paupers, took up the call--the largest mobilization of manpower since the fall of the Roman Empire.
Now, in The First Crusade, Thomas Asbridge offers a gripping account of a titanic three-year adventure filled with miraculous victories, greedy princes and barbarity on a vast scale. Readers follow the crusaders from their mobilization in Europe (where great waves of anti-Semitism resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews), to their arrival in Constantinople, an exotic, opulent city--ten times the size of any city in Europe--that bedazzled the Europeans. Featured in vivid detail are the siege of Nicaea and the pivotal battle for Antioch, the single most important military engagement of the entire expedition, where the crusaders, in desperate straits, routed a larger and better-equipped Muslim army. Through all this, the crusaders were driven on by intense religious devotion, convinced that their struggle would earn them the reward of eternal paradise in Heaven. But when a hardened core finally reached Jerusalem in 1099 they unleashed an unholy wave of brutality, slaughtering thousands of Muslims--men, women, and children--all in the name of Christianity.
The First Crusade marked a watershed in relations between Islam and the West, a conflict that set these two world religions on a course toward deep-seated animosity and enduring enmity. The chilling reverberations of this earth-shattering clash still echo in the world today.

Customer Reviews

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Rated 5 stars
An enjoyable narrative, from a European slant

The First Crusade is an enjoyable read. It starts a little slow, but once the Crusaders reach Constantinople, things get really interesting. It has lots of drama and action. I think the author is fairly un-biased, though the book is definitely from the European perspective. Many reviewers took exception with this book based on their OWN biases. Some Islamic readers felt that Asbridge tried to justify atrocities by the...

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Rated 5 stars
Asbridge's book offers a fast moving, yet detailed overview of the First Crusade

Thomas Asbridge's book The first Crusade, A New History, offers the reader a well-written and fast-moving chronicle of the First Crusade and the events leading up to it. The book is very readable and covers the period with enough detail to acquaint the reader with significant events while moving at a pace that encourages you to want more. The author sets the stage by examining the political, cultural and spiritual milieu...

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Rated 5 stars
Well-written, fair, accessible

Asbridge must have had an academic audience in mind, but his book is accessible even to one with no background in Medieval warfare or history. He is an excellent story-teller; the battles come alive, and the characters' motivations are real. A huge strength of the work for me was the author's ability to represent the Medieval worldview to a modern reader. The disconnect is huge, but Asbridge is equal to the task, and it makes...

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Rated 5 stars
A book that reads like an action movie

This is one of the best history books I have read in a long time. It is incredibly well-written and contains a fascinating account about the first crusade. It will keep you riveted until the end. Asbridge doesn't merely give a blow-by-blow of the action - although action is certainly not lacking. He explores how the crusade got started and the varied motivations of the participants. Characters like Bohemond, Godfrey of...

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Rated 5 stars
Taking the Cross

This is a wonderful book. The author, Thomas Asbridge, has written a taut, clear account of a time in history that, at least for me, has always seemed terribly murky and shrouded in fable. The main strength of the book is its strong, direct, linear flow. The reader follows the First Crusade from its birth in Clermont and Pope Urban's preaching tour across France; to the Crusade's bloody finale and the Christian army's rampage...

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