FIGHTING FOR CHRISTENDOM: Holy War and the Crusades

In this excellent popular history, medieval historian Tyerman offers a short introduction to the Crusades, touching on the most salient features and helping readers understand why it's so important to ferret out from all the lore what really happened. While it's a tall order to present more than four centuries of wars spanning three continents, Tyerman rises to the task with aplomb, noting early on that "much of what passes in public as knowledge of the Crusades is either misleading or false." The Crusades were not, he says, solely wars against Islam, and their main purpose wasn't to impose Western economic or political leadership, especially since "there existed no strategic or material interest for the knights of the west to campaign in Judea." As the book's second half makes clear, the Crusades need to be understood as religious holy wars conducted by individuals who were infused by utter certainty that their actions aligned wholly with God's plan. Tyerman writes engagingly, and numerous maps and illustrations help to support his story—especially since, as he tells us, "iconography is never innocent." A sharply opinionated concluding essay traces the impact of the Crusades through the Protestant Reformation, Enlightenment and 19th-century romanticism to the present, arguing that Bush and bin Laden are "co-heirs to the legacy of a 19th-century European construct" of the Crusades. (Feb.)