Gary Dickson

This is not popular history and I wouldn't recommend it to non-academic types, but I found it very interesting. I hadn't realized that so little is known about the Children's Crusade -- everything I thought I knew has never been verified and may very well be made up. The author is an excellent historiographer and myth buster.

I've been pondering how to properly dissect this read. An Improbably Pairing was such a flirty, coming to Switzerland story as Scott Stoddard is knocked off his feet by the Countess de Rovere, a woman so far out of his league an improbably but perfect pairing they make. So, when I learned of this second novel I expected more of the same.
First, I was pleasantly surprised to encounter that this second read was strong enough to hold as a standalone. Providing enough history to both refresh show more one's memory of the first while not feeling like those diving into book two were really missing out. Where book one spun a pleasurable love story, book two created an atmosphere of deception, guilt and intrigue. One of my favorite aspects of the Stoddard's, and subsequently Dickson's storytelling, is that while Mrs. Stoddard, or the former Countess de Rovere, is a strong and powerful character yet the story remains primarily dedicated to Scott and his more American views as he aims to maintain his own success outside of the intrigue and celebrity of his new wife. Furthermore, Dickson chooses to address the Vietnam war from an entirely unique angle. Providing the readers with an international, espionage angle while maintain the aristocratic, deliberate and formal writing we've come to enjoy in the first book.
*Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own. show less

Scott Stoddard is an American graduate student who has been accepted into a prestigious program in Switzerland. On his way overseas, Scott is introduced to the enigmatic Countess de Rovere and becomes infatuated. With a promise to his parents to focus on his studies, Scott puts off calling on the Countess and attempts to concentrate on school and girls his own age. However, the pull of the Countess' presence is hard to resist and Scott finds himself under Desiree's spell. Scott and Desiree show more find that their attraction is mutual, even though there is a long list of reasons that they should not be together. Being introduced into Desiree's social circle takes a toll on Scott's academics, but their attraction grows. As news of their relationship spreads, pressure mounts on the couple.

An Improbable Pairing takes the reader through the whirlwind romance of a very lucky American student and a privileged Countess in 1960's Europe. The beginning of the book grabbed my attention with the voyage, the mystery surrounding The Countess and the suspense of how Scott and Desiree would come together. After Scott arrived, the pace slowed a bit as he went about being a student and attempting to date the girls he believed he should. Things began to pick up again when Scott and Desiree begin dating. At this point, it also seemed like Scott was just the luckiest man alive as everything fell perfectly into place for him. Desiree's world is shiny and exciting as her status invites her into world's that I would never be able to see. The descriptions of luxurious homes, clothing, jewelry, restaurants, food and events were very encompassing and detailed allowing me to richly imagine places in Switzerland and France that I will never see. The romance plays out as I would expect, the addition of Desiree's ex-husband adds a slight tension, but could have been used to ramp up the excitement even more. Overalll, a classic historical romance that add the glamour of 1960's Europe.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. show less

The Children's Crusade recently came up as a topic of conversation. Most of the people who were participating in the discussion had learned of it in middle school. I, on the other hand, quickly discovered that while I was vaguely aware of the Children's Crusade, I actually knew very little about it. As usual when I am faced with a subject that I am unfamiliar with, I looked for a book to read. This is how I came to discover Gary Dickson's The Children's Crusade: Medieval History, Modern show more Mythistory which seemed to be just what I was looking for, addressing both the history of the Children's Crusade as well as the legend it has become. Published by Palgrave Macmillan as a hardcover in 2007 and then again as a paperback in 2012, Dickson's The Children's Crusade is one of the first and only modern academic study examining the Children's Crusade in great detail. It made sense to me that I would begin my exploration of the topic there as well.

In 1212, a group of youth led a popular crusade in France which then caused or influenced a similar youth movement later that year in Germany. The crusade is mentioned in over fifty surviving Latin texts from the era, but unfortunately very few of these texts are historically reliable, making it difficult to determine exactly what happened before, during, or after the Children's Crusade. What should have amounted to nothing more than a historical footnote--the youth's actions were neither sanctioned by the papal state, nor were they successful in their goals--the Children's Crusade ignited the imaginations of historians, novelist, poets, artists, and composer, who embellished known events and cemented their place into popular history and social memory. In children's literature alone the crusade is presented as "religion gone mad, an ego trip, great fun, a sentimental tear-jerker and cautionary tale, an inspiration, a voluntary project, or a protest song." Obscure history has become myth, metaphor, and propaganda.

In The Children's Crusade, Dickson addresses and ties together three aspects of the movement: its history, its mythistory, and its memory. After an introduction, the next two chapters, "The Pope and the Pueri" and "Birthpangs of the Children's Crusade," put the Children's Crusade into historical context and examines its relationship to other crusades of the time period. "Charisma" explores what is known of the French movement of youth while "On the Road" explores its connection with the German movement which is then further examined in the final history chapter, "The Great Migration." Dickson devotes only one chapter to the crusade's influential mythistory, "The Shape of a Story." The Children's Crusade concludes with two memory chapters looking at the crusades representation from the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries and nineteenth to twentieth centuries respectively.

Dickson does assume the reader already has some knowledge of the Children's Crusade and the sources discussed, which makes The Children's Crusade difficult to recommend as an introduction to the subject. Additionally, the writing is fairly dense. However, Dickson's work is one of the most comprehensive and coherent resources available in English. The volume can feel disjointed at times and it's difficult to discern from it an orderly narrative of the Children's Crusade, but that is mostly because one doesn't exist. It is also almost impossible to completely separate the mythistory from the legitimate history. However, Dickson does an admirable job of pulling together disparate and conflicting accounts and tracing the influence of the Children's Crusade through the centuries. The actual history is just as intriguing as the story of how the Children's Crusade became a lasting cultural touchstone. It has been eight centuries since the unprecedented youth movement and yet it continues to be a compelling tale. The Children's Crusade is a fascinating and useful volume.

Experiments in Reading show less