Thousands left their homelands in the Middle Ages to fight wars abroad. But how did the Crusades actually happen? From recruitment propaganda to raising money, ships to siege engines, medicine to the power of prayer, this vivid, surprising history shows holy war - and medieval society - in a new light.
Christopher Tyerman is a Fellow and Tutor in History at Hertford College, Oxford and Lecturer in Medieval History at New College, Oxford. He has written extensively on the crusades, most recently God's War- A New History of the Crusades and The Debate on the Crusades. He is also the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of the Chronicles of the First Crusade.
An impressive synthesis of a complicated subject, presented in
elegant, readable prose. Not many historians could have done it
*The Spectator*
His deeply researched study is dedicated to exploring the
relationship between human reason and religious war in all its
aspects - justification, propaganda, recruitment, finance,
logistics - to show us how 'reason made religious war
possible.'
*London Review of Books*
Mining details on victualing and logistics 800 years ago is
Tyerman's forte, and he throws them on to the page like chaff from
a trebuchet... it is comprehensive, laying down a great skein of
fact where there was only supposition (much of it false). And, as
the West gears up for the crusade of 2015-16 against Islamic State,
it is horribly timely.
*The Times*
Tyerman's book is fascinating not just for what it has to tell us
about the Crusades, but for the mirror it holds up to today's
religious extremism
*Mail on Sunday*
How to Plan a Crusade is serious and scholarly, the synthesis of
decades of work on difficult, fragmented sources. Administrative
records weren't routinely kept until around 1300, which makes
Tyerman's task harder and more impressive...this is also a lively
book, laced with wry asides and enough surprising details to pique
the general reader.
*The Guardian*
There is a deeper story here about the rise in Britain of both
class structure and bureaucracy...
*Telegraph*
Wonderfully written and characteristically brilliant account of the
logistics (and motivations) that underpinned the Crusades
*Peter Frankopan*
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