
CRUSADES, THE |
Subtitle:
The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
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Book Category:
History > General
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Author:
Asbridge, Thomas
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Editor::
Weiland (MW)
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Illustrator::
(None)
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Binding:
Paperback
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ISBN 10:
0060787295
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ISBN 13:
9780060787295
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Price:
USD 19.99
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Publication Year:
2011
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Publisher Info
HarperCollins Publishers USA. InquiryNine hundred years ago, European history was transformed by a single military campaign: a vast Christian army, summoned to Holy War by the pope, rampaged through the Muslim world of the eastern Mediterranean, seizing possession of Jerusalem, a city venerated by both religions. In the two centuries that followed this First Crusade, a savage conflict raged between Islam and the West, leaving the indelible stain of ethnic hatred upon both cultures. A magisterial, narrative history, The Crusades will tell the story of this brutal struggle for dominion of the Holy Land, revealing the full horror, passion and barbaric grandeur of the Crusades--and explaining how they reshaped the medieval world and why the continue to influence events to this day. Thomas Asbridge is an acclaimed British historian whose previous book was hailed for its "vivid" (New Yorker), "fast-flowing" (NYTBR) and "rousing" (PW) style. Drawing on both European and Arabic sources, he tells the story from both the Christian and Muslim perspective for the first time. Along the way, he also answers the most fundamental questions about the Crusades: -How did two of the world's great religions come to advocate violence in the name of God? -Was the crusading era a period of unqualified discord - the product of an inevitable 'clash of civilizations' - or one that revealed a capacity for coexistence between Christendom and Islam? -Who, in the end, won the war for the Holy Land and why, and why do these ancient struggles still seem to cast a shadow over the world to this day?
Meredith Greenhouse - 212-207-7044. Richard Frias 212-207-7541.