Review by Choice Review
This book is the third in a series on the Crusades intended for a general audience. Harris (Byzantine studies, Royal Holloway Univ. of London) takes as his theme the impact of the Crusades on the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, whose emperor, Alexius I (1081-1118) appealed for Western military aid and so precipitated Pope Urban II's call to liberate the Holy Land. The book is well written, with an excellent bibliography, but its analysis is disappointing. Harris, a literary scholar by training, argues that Byzantines were trapped by a hierarchical worldview that resulted in repeated misunderstandings with Western Europeans. These blunders, in turn, led to the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The narrative of political events does not quite prove the thesis. Readers are left with many unanswered questions, such as the ardors faced by Crusaders, Byzantine fiscal and economic resources, the role of Italian merchants, or the Turkish settlement of Anatolia. Instead, the elegant narrative of Steven Runciman's three-volume A History of the Crusades (1951-54) is still the recommended introduction for all readers. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries. K. W. Harl Tulane University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
The Byzantine Empire was a diffident supporter of the Crusades' efforts to redeem Jerusalem from infidels. This tepidness of Christian solidarity over the more than two centuries of crusading provoked hostility in the knights and kings marching Constantinople's way, but the Byzantine emperors and their councillors had good reasons to be unenthusiastic about their visitors. Harris presents the Byzantine viewpoint in an unstuffy narrative well suited to the general reader, ascribing the conflict not to a West/East culture clash but to the pursuit of well-developed Byzantine ideology. This viewpoint rests on twin precepts of prestige: that Byzantium was the successor state to the Roman Empire, and that Orthodox Christianity was the universal creed of the faith. Recounting Byzantine policy to secure the crusaders' acknowledgment of Byzantine religio-political primacy, Harris enlivens the emperors or usurpers who conducted it, retrieving them from their flat portrayals as villains or saints in the source material. Assured and fluid, Harris perceptively narrates events in this tempting presentation for the history buff. Gilbert Taylor
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
These timely volumes trace centuries of conflict between Christians and the followers of other faiths, including Islam. Medievalist Hindley (The Shaping of Europe) concentrates on the best-known aspect of the Crusades: the struggle between Islam and the West for control of the Holy Land. But he also looks at other crusading ventures, e.g., the northern crusades against the pagan peoples of the Baltic coast and the destruction of the Cathars, followers of a heretical dualist form of Christianity, which decimated Provence over several decades and brought it under French control. Harris (Byzantine studies, Royal Holloway, Univ. of London) focuses on the interplay between the crusaders and their ostensible allies, the Byzantines, taking a fresh look at events that in little more than a century led to the sack of Constantinople by crusaders pledged to battle Islam and recapture the cities of the Holy Land. The capture of the greatest city of Christendom by fellow Christians has been broadly interpreted as either the result of a clash of civilizations or an accident-a fatal chain of events leading to an unforeseen tragedy. Harris advances a third view-that the key lies in the ideology informing the political elite of the Eastern Roman Empire, who held that the Eastern Roman Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire, that the new nations of Western Europe were occupying Roman lands, and that the Byzantine emperor had been set over all Christians, not just his immediate subjects. The subsequent misunderstanding and resentment led to the sack of Constantinople. Well written and convincingly presented, these volumes are valuable additions to the study of the crusades and of Byzantium. Highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P.L., MN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
