This is the first book I have read by Stark, but it makes me eager to read more by the man. It is more than a history of the crusades, it is a critical history of the popular history. To be honest I could never really buy into the popular myths surrounding the crusades, but this book showed me why they didn't ring true to my ears. Rodney Stark in a thoroughly researched fashion busts one myth after another surrounding the crusades, and also western culture and history. He does a brilliant job chronicling the technological breakthroughs of the so-called "dark Ages" and how at the same time contrary to popular belief, Muslim culture was not advancing but regressing.
He shows the justification for the crusades, and that neither side was always as "chivalrous" as is often made out. He quotes from primary sources and secondary sources from both sides.
In many ways the book is also a history of the history of the crusades. The history of the crusades seems to have a life of its own, and Stark not only tells the history of the crusades in gripping fashion, but he shows how and why the history has been interpreted in different ways and by different people over the centuries.
For those interested in this episode of history, for those interested in Islamic culture and its historical interaction with the West it is a brilliant must read to rival even those works by Bernard Lewis, which also would be helpful.
See the review here
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