The History Book Club discussion

I just ordered this from my library! Suspect it'll be either really good and insightful or simply dreadful. Hoping for the former!

Let us know what you think.

Will do!

Thank you Samanta for assisting Andrew.

The Jews and the Crusaders: The Hebrew Chronicles of the First and Second Crusades

by Shlomo Eidelberg (no photo)

Synopsis:

The Jews of Christian Europe were the first victims of the Crusaders' zeal, and the survivors produced accounts of the massacres they had witnessed. The Jews and the Crusaders contains a full English translation of these chronicles, which cover the First and Second crusades - years in which a wave of slaughter and suicide swept the Jews of France and Germany, and demonstrated the Jews' stubborn refusal to abandon their faith. Shlomo Eidelberg has translated four important primary documents from the original Hebrew, providing a perspective on the Crusades that has until now remained relatively obscure to the English-speaking world, thus serving both historians of early Christian Europe and Judaic scholars. The unique emotional power of each chronicle may be felt in the translation. The Chronicle of Solomon bar Samson is a moving narrative concerning the Rhineland massacres. The second chronicle, that of Eliezer bar Nathan, interprets some of the same events in elegiac style and liturgical language while the third chronicle, the Mainz Anonymous though fragmented, is highly analytical in nature. The fourth chronicle, Sefer Zekhirah, is a personal description of the Second Crusade, full of poignant detail. Together, the chronicles present a moving human record of these events, of value not only to professional historians but to all who seek to broaden their understanding of the Jewish experience. These documents will be of further value in that they exemplify eleventh- and twelfth-century literary style, combining factual accounts and descriptions of events with encomia and liturgical elements. In these four chronicles, this genre is enriched with a language and style derived from a mixture of Biblical, Talmudic, and midrashic literature.

Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries

by Malcolm Barber

Synopsis:

No written source is entirely without literary artifice, but the letters sent from Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine in the high middle ages come closest to recording the real feelings of those who lived in and visited the crusader states. They are not, of course, reflective pieces, but they do convey the immediacy of circumstances which were frequently dramatic and often life-threatening. Those settled in the East faced crises all the time, while crusaders and pilgrims knew they were experiencing defining moments in their lives. There are accounts of all the great events from the triumph of the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 to the disasters of Hattin in 1187 and the loss of Acre in 1291. These had an impact on the lives of all Latin Christians, but at the same time individuals felt impelled to describe both their own personal achievements and disappointments and the wonders and horrors of what they had seen. Moreover, the representatives of the military and monastic orders used letters as a means of maintaining contact with the western houses, providing information about the working of religious orders not found elsewhere. Some of the letters translated here are famous, others hardly known, but all offer unique insight into the minds of those who took part in the crusading movement.

Samanta wrote: "Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th–13th Centuries"

How is the editing ? 1000 year old sources will require some context and commentary, as their mental framework was totally alien to the 21st century's. From Deus Vult! to semi-genocide andsoforth.

You will have to read the book and find out. Same as me. :)

How to Plan a Crusade: Religious War in the High Middle Ages

by Christopher Tyerman (no photo)

Synopsis:

The story of the wars and conquests initiated by the First Crusade and its successors is itself so compelling that most accounts move quickly from describing the Pope's calls to arms to the battlefield. In this highly original and enjoyable new book, Christopher Tyerman focuses on something obvious but overlooked: the massive, all-encompassing and hugely costly business of actually preparing a crusade. The efforts of many thousands of men and women, who left their lands and families in Western Europe, and marched off to a highly uncertain future in the Holy Land and elsewhere have never been sufficiently understood. Their actions raise a host of compelling questions about the nature of medieval society.

How to Plan a Crusade is remarkably illuminating on the diplomacy, communications, propaganda, use of mass media, medical care, equipment, voyages, money, weapons, wills, ransoms, animals, and the power of prayer during this dynamic era. It brings to life an extraordinary period of history in a new and surprising way.

Thank you Jerome

The Alps: A Human History from Hannibal to Heidi and Beyond

by Stephen O'Shea

Synopsis:

Scaling the peaks

For centuries the Alps have seen the march of armies, the flow of Crusaders, the feats of mountaineers, and the dreams of engineers. Some 14 million people live among their peaks today. Stephen O'Shea takes us up and down these majestic mountains on a 500-mile arc across France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia.

O'Shea explores the crossing of Hannibal and his elephants; reveals the Alps' influence on culture, from Heidi to The Sound of Music; and visits locales including the site of the Italians' retreat in World War I, the spot where Arthur Conan Doyle staged Sherlock Holmes' death scene, and Hitler's notorious aerie, the Eagle's Nest.

The Alps is a breathtaking blend of travelogue and historical narrative.

Review Quotes

"An ebulllient narrative. . . . This spirited jaunt into the peaks of Europe may inspire readers to pack their bags."-Kirkus Reviews

"A graceful and passionate writer."-The Washington Post

About the Author

Stephen O'Shea spent many years as a journalist in Paris and New York. He is the author of several books, including Back to the Front: An Accidental Historian Walks the Trenches of World War I and Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World.

New book, just came out!

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: The Crusades, Apocalyptic Prophecy, and the End of History

by Jay Rubenstein (no photo)

Synopsis:

In 1099, the soldiers of the First Crusade took Jerusalem. As the news of this victory spread throughout Medieval Europe, it felt nothing less than miraculous and dream-like, to such an extent that many believed history itself had been fundamentally altered by the event and that the Rapture was at hand. As a result of military conquest, Christians could see themselves as agents of rather than mere actors in their own salvation.

The capture of Jerusalem changed everything. A loosely defined geographic backwater, comprised of petty kingdoms and shifting alliances, Medieval Europe began now to imagine itself as the center of the world. The West had overtaken the East not just on the world's stage but in God's plans. To justify this, its writers and thinkers turned to ancient prophecies, and specifically to one of the most enigmatic passages in the Bible, the dream King Nebuchadnezzar has in the Book of Daniel, of a statue with a golden head and feet of clay. Conventional interpretation of the dream transformed the state into a series of kingdoms, each less glorious than the last, leading inexorably to the end of all earthly realmsin short, to the Apocalypse. The First Crusade signified to Christians that the dream of Nebuchadnezzar would be fulfilled on their terms. Such heady reconceptions continued until the disaster of the Second Crusade and with it the collapse of any dreams of unification or salvation-any notion that conquering the Holy Land and defeating the Infidel could absolve sin.

In Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, Jay Rubenstein boldly maps out the steps by which these social, political, economic, and intellectual shifts occurred throughout the 12th century, drawing on those who guided and explained them. The Crusades raised the possibility of imagining the Apocalypse as more than prophecy but actual event. Rubenstein examines how those who confronted the conflict between prophecy and reality transformed the meaning and memory of the Crusades as well as their place in history.

Thank you Michele

by Jean Flori

The Holy War : How the idea of Crusade has been developped in Western Christendom?

Jaw-dropping to see how soon and how efficiently the Clergy managed to channel violence to their own profit. Edifying indeed...

Also, in my opinion, Jean Flori asks the good questions yet he comes up short in delivering a "thrifty" discourse and turns out dry and repetitive.


SUMMARY :
Chapter 1 : Crusade, pilgrimage and holy war
Chapter 2 : The Christian Empire
Chapter 3 : From God's peace to the crusade?
Chapter 4 : The Saints Holy violence
Chapter 5 : From warlike saints to saintly warriors
Chapter 6 : Under Saint Peter's banner
Chapter 7 : Gregor VII and the Emancipation of the Church
Chapter 8 : Christians and pagans : demonizing the enemies of Christendom before 1000 a.D.
Chapter 9 : Holy War and Christian reconquest after 1000 a.D.
Chapter 10 : From Holy War to the Crusade
Conclusion : Holy War, jihad and Crusade.

-----------

C'est intéressant de voir comment, très tôt, et avec quelle réussite les autorités religieuses régulières et séculières ont détourné la violence à leur profit. Édifiant, dans un sens...

Malheureusement, s'il sait poser les bonnes questions, Jean Flori est particulièrement redondant.


TABLE DES MATIÈRES :
Chapitre 1 : Croisade, pèlerinage et guerre sainte
Chapitre 2 : L'empire chrétien
Chapitre 3 : De la paix de Dieu à la croisade ?
Chapitre 4 : La violence sacrée des saints
Chapitre 5 : Des saints guerriers aux guerriers saints
Chapitre 6 : Sous la bannière de Saint-Pierre
Chapitre 7 : Grégoire VII et la libération de l'Église
Chapitre 8 : Chrétiens et païens : la diabolisation des adversaires de la chrétienté jusqu'à l'an 1000
Chapitre 9 : Guerre sainte et reconquête chrétienne après l'an mil
Chapitre 10 : De la Guerre sainte à la croisade
Conclusion : Guerre sainte, jihad et croisade


Bibliographie extensive de 31 pages.

Thank you P.E. - I see above that you did post in English and in French. We ask folks to post in English if they are able because that is the universal language here and what most of the moderators have as their native language. Thank you for understanding. It is OK if the book is in another language - but we need the write-up to be in English and you did both - thank you.

Good job with the cover of the book, you do not need the link since you have the book cover but then we add the author's photo if available and the author's link. If there is no author's photo, we simply add (no photo) after the author's link.

Here is an example of how the citation should look:

by Jean Flori (no photo)

I will delete my help to you once the edit has been made and we are here to help.

Thank you so much for you add - just keep them coming.

An upcoming book:
Release date: October 1, 2019

Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands

by Dan Jones

Synopsis:

For more than one thousand years, Christians and Muslims lived side by side, sometimes at peace and sometimes at war. When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era.

Expanding the usual timeframe, Jones looks to the roots of Christian-Muslim relations in the eighth century and tracks the influence of crusading to present day. He widens the geographical focus to far-flung regions home to so-called enemies of the Church, including Spain, North Africa, southern France, and the Baltic states. By telling intimate stories of individual journeys, Jones illuminates these centuries of war not only from the perspective of popes and kings, but from Arab-Sicilian poets, Byzantine princesses, Sunni scholars, Shi'ite viziers, Mamluk slave soldiers, Mongol chieftains, and barefoot friars.

Crusading remains a rallying call to this day, but its role in the popular imagination ignores the cooperation and complicated coexistence that were just as much a feature of the period as warfare. The age-old relationships between faith, conquest, wealth, power, and trade meant that crusading was not only about fighting for the glory of God, but also, among other earthly reasons, about gold. In this richly dramatic narrative that gives voice to sources usually pushed to the margins, Dan Jones has written an authoritative survey of the holy wars with global scope and human focus.

Thank you Jerome

The Crusade of King Conrad III of Germany: Warfare and Diplomacy in Byzantium, Anatolia and Outremer, 1146 - 1149

by Jason T. Roche (no photo)

Synopsis:

This book represents the first work of history dedicated to the crusade of King Conrad III of Germany (1146-49), emperor-elect of the western Roman Empire and the most powerful man yet to assume the Cross.

Even so, many of the people following the king on the Second Crusade were dead before they reached Constantinople and their ranks were devastated in Anatolia. Yet he went on to join with his fellow kings, Louis VII of France and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, in an attempt to capture the city of Damascus, the most powerful Muslim stronghold in southern Syria. Their unsuccessful attack lasted just five days. The recriminations for the many privations and problems the Germans suffered and encountered in Byzantium, Anatolia and Outremer were long and loud and have echoed down the ages: German indiscipline and poor leadership, Byzantine deceit and duplicity, and the self-serving interests of a Latin Jerusalemite nobility were and still are blamed for the various failings of the expedition.

Scrutinising the original source evidence to an unprecedented degree and employing a range of innovative, multi-disciplinary approaches this work challenges the traditional and more recent historiography at every turn leading to a significantly clearer and fundamentally different understanding of the expedition's complex and much maligned history.

An upcoming book:
Release date: November 5, 2019

The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades

by Roger Crowley

Synopsis:

The 1291 siege of Acre was the Alamo of the Christian Crusades -- the final bloody battle for the Holy Land. After a desperate six weeks, the beleaguered citadel surrendered to the Mamluks, bringing an end to Christendom's two-hundred year adventure in the Middle East.

In The Accursed Tower, Roger Crowley delivers a lively narrative of the lead-up to the siege and a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle. Drawing on extant Arabic sources as well as untranslated Latin documents, he argues that Acre is notable for technical advances in military planning and siege warfare, and extraordinary for its individual heroism and savage slaughter. A gripping depiction of the crusader era told through its dramatic last moments, The Accursed Tower offers an essential new view on a crucial turning point in world history.

Another interesting book. Thank you, Jerome.

Thank you Jerome for the wonderful adds.

The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors

by Dan Jones

Synopsis:

A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity’s holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies.

Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. These are the first Knights Templar, a band of elite warriors prepared to give their lives to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next two hundred years, the Templars would become the most powerful religious order of the medieval world. Their legend has inspired fervent speculation ever since.

In this groundbreaking narrative history, Dan Jones tells the true story of the Templars for the first time in a generation, drawing on extensive original sources to build a gripping account of these Christian holy warriors whose heroism and alleged depravity have been shrouded in myth. The Templars were protected by the pope and sworn to strict vows of celibacy. They fought the forces of Islam in hand-to-hand combat on the sun-baked hills where Jesus lived and died, finding their nemesis in Saladin, who vowed to drive all Christians from the lands of Islam. Experts at channeling money across borders, they established the medieval world’s largest and most innovative banking network and waged private wars against anyone who threatened their interests.

Then, as they faced setbacks at the hands of the ruthless Mamluk sultan Baybars and were forced to retreat to their stronghold in Cyprus, a vindictive and cash-strapped King of France set his sights on their fortune. His administrators quietly mounted a damning case against the Templars, built on deliberate lies and false testimony. Then on Friday October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured, and the order was disbanded amid lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. They were tried by the Pope in secret proceedings and their last master was brutally tortured and burned at the stake. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources tobring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

I think this belongs here as well as the Early Medieval folder

An upcoming book:
Release date: January 27, 2026

The Black Cross: A History of the Baltic Crusades

by Aleksander Pluskowski (no photo)

Synopsis:

Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last pagan societies in northern Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea region. Led by Catholic rulers, churchmen, and, most importantly of all, the warrior monks of the Teutonic Order, they sought to expand Christendom through conquest and conversion. In the process they forged a new world with a profound legacy that resonates into the present.

Aleksander Pluskowski traces the broader story of the Baltic Crusades. Pluskowski explores how the construction of castles and towns, and the introduction of new languages, technology, monetary economies, and religion transformed the conquered societies. Moving through the years, we see how the history of the crusades was reinvented in the twentieth century to serve nationalist aims, including those of the Third Reich. This is a fascinating study that provides a fresh look at the impact of centuries of religious warfare across northern Europe.

My goodness, Jerome, this sounds interesting! It’s a section of history with which I’m very unfamiliar. You’re expanding my horizons, not to mention the girth of my overly obese TBR List.
Regards,
Andrea