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| The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 40 reviews)
Sales Rank: 347252
Category: Book
Author: Thomas Asbridge
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0195189051
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.014
EAN: 9780195189056
ASIN: 0195189051
Publication Date: September 29, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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. Beginning with the electrifying speech delivered by Pope Urban II on the last Tuesday of November in the year 1095, readers will follow the more than 100,000 men who took up the call from their mobilization in Europe (where great waves of anti-Semitism resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews), to their arrival in Constanstinople, 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 desparate 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 unleahsed 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 great adventure October 10, 2008
The author has the gift of story telling and in this case "the story" actually occurred. Thomas Asbridge is not biased, does not take sides, just presents some startling facts about the Crusaders and their beginning. I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a wonderful introduction to that time period. Highly recommend this book - and once again, real life is better than fiction.
The First Crusade: a review June 7, 2008
Although I have yet to finish the book, I have been satisfied with what I have read and find it enjoyable enough to write my review. The book is an easy read, considering the subject matter. The only critisism that I have is that the footnotes could be fleshed out a little more. I'd be more comfortable accepting some of the assertions regarding motive and intent of the Crusaders if they were better sourced. However, on balance, I find the book to be informative and entertaining. I would reccomend this book to anyone interested in investigating the subject matter.
 Good research, flat writing April 30, 2008
Pedestrian general history of the First Crusade, from 1095-1098. Ashbridge is a better researcher than a writer, as the account appears factual but flat.
best general history written on first crusade April 24, 2008
The First Crusade written by medieval historian Thomas Asbridge is simply the finest general history of the campaign yet written. His use of contemporary sources, battlefield prose, and political and religious intrigues are fantastic. There is little if anything left out of this volume. He truly brings the first crusade to life. My fervent wish is that Asbridge with his emphasis on the military and human stories involved here becomes the next individual tasked with writing a full crusade history as a whole. This work is absolutely marvelous. Kudos to Mr Asbridge for this wonderful and hopefully introductory volume!
 unbalanced and overwrought March 5, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Asbridge pretty much ignores the history of Islamic aggression in the eastern Mediterranean that led up to the 1st Crusade. The prophet himself led forays into Syria in the 6th century. And Islamists overran a lot of previously Christian land before any crusading in response. How can you present "The Roots of Conflict Between Christianity and Islam" while ignoring hundreds of years of Islamic aggression prior to the first major counter measure?
My other major objection is turgid prose, for example from P.22
The sheer malleability of history - stretched and distorted by the imprecisions of memory and twisted through wilful manipulation and forgery - meant that the 'past' that informed and enabled Urban's sanctification of violence was actually a shifting, tangle web of reality and imagination.
I would prefer some evidence for this view rather than a wordy and overwrought assertion like this.
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