The Crusades: A Very Short Introduction

Tyerman’s short introduction to the crusades provides a brief overview of the events and major theatres of the crusade, at the same time he relates detailed specifics and anecdotal stories. I enjoyed reading his book, and found it to be a good balance of detail with general broad definitions. One of Tyerman’s reasons for writing the book is to correct many of the images that people have in their minds of the “crusader.” He debunk's the Romantic views, armoured knights were not riding around on horses defeating every foe they came across. He also dispels the lust for plunder; younger sons were not running off to the Holy Land to make their fortunes. Most people who 'took the Cross' invested huge sums of money and resources to be show more able to make the trip. Crusading was not a get rich quick operation. He is very careful to stress that religious devotion and penitential aspects were the main motivations for Europeans to go on crusade, either in the Middle East, Spain or the Baltic.

Tyerman gave a nice brief outline of what happened in each of the major Crusades, categorizing them by geographic locations. The timeline and subject jumps around a bit, but isn’t that hard to follow. I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a basic understanding of what happened in the Crusades. Tyerman did a good job of making the Crusades understandable and he did a good job of undoing some negative but persistent stereotypes that have existed for a while. I’ve read a couple of books in the A Very Short Introduction series and these books seem to be relatively short, easily accessible, yet detailed and specific enough to give the reader a general understanding of the topic. They aren’t so vague that you come away without learning anything; but they aren’t extremely dense and detailed that you get lost. They are meant to be read by anyone. In my opinion Tyerman does just that. show less