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Crusades
Surveys the history of the crusades, looks at the motivations and political manipulations behind them, and discusses their impact on modern history
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
25 people are currently reading
627 people want to read
About the author
Terry Jones
184 books289 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python's Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthology series Ripping Yarns. He also wrote an early draft of Jim Henson's film Labyrinth and is credited with the screenplay, though little of his work actually remained in the final cut. Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period, as well as a prolific children's author. In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his outstanding contribution to television and film. After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia, he gradually lost the ability to speak and died in 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python's Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthology series Ripping Yarns. He also wrote an early draft of Jim Henson's film Labyrinth and is credited with the screenplay, though little of his work actually remained in the final cut. Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period, as well as a prolific children's author. In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his outstanding contribution to television and film. After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia, he gradually lost the ability to speak and died in 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 12, 2007
Great fun and an excellent introduction to the history of the Crusades. From the historian of Monty Python, (how can you go wrong there)?! comes a fabulous first galne at crusade history that anyone can read. I immediately immersed myself into more concentrated works on the crusades after this book.
August 3, 2024
Hard pressed to think you could make a better introductory book on the Crusades.
June 5, 2014
Roaringly good history, very balanced (on the whole, if anything, the Muslim forces come across as more disciplined than the Christian, although there is plenty of infighting and fractioned stupidity there too). Gives you a sense of how bizarre the crusades were--random groups of poor folk led by crazy preachers, political leaders, deals with sultanate conspiracies, cannibalism, plagues, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Frederick Barbarossa drowning on his way to a crusade and getting pickled as a figurehead--really this is as good a preparation for Monty Python's Holy Grail as anything. History is stranger than comedy, I suppose
February 19, 2020
"We make no pretensions to extending the bounds of scholarship. This is a book for the reader with little or no knowledge of the subject. For those who want to read more there is plenty. We hope that this book may be a help in reading the others." - Introduction.
Terry Jones and Alan Ereira did a good job in my case. I knew a little bit about the Crusades. Richard the Lionheart led one crusade against Saladin, who I once thought invented tea (Salada was a brand of tea when I was young.) Richard got stuck in Germany, where he sang songs from his prison cell. That's all I "knew" about the Crusades. Now I know a bit more.
It's not a funny book. Don't expect Monty Python. Mr. Jones and Mr. Ereira's slant, in my opinion, is that the Pope called on Europe's kings and knights to conquer and defend the Holy Places in order to
1) solve for the knights the problem between God's command "Thou shalt not kill" and Christ's "Blessed are the peacemakers ... Blessed are the meek ...." against their job to kill to defend their kings and homelands from other Christian kings and knights. "If you kill the infidels, you will not sin but you will gain forgiveness and even glory."
2) get those randy and rambunctious knights out of Europe, to a place where they can do their valiant stuff and get loot to live on. All those landless knights needed to get rich to maintain their knightly status.
3) become the absolute Head of the Christian Church. Many crusading armies from western Europe fought the Eastern Orthodox and other sorts of Christians in the Middle East as well as the Moslems, or instead of the Moslems. The Pope in Rome said nothing against it.
The authors also wanted to show the Moslem as well as the Christian view of the Crusades. Islam gets a little more sympathetic treatment but not much. Sunnis and Shiites were fighting each other. Caliphs, Sultans and Viziers were being assassinated. They didn't expect Christian interference in their countries; but the Franks could be useful allies in getting victory over their own enemies.
Now, Jones and Ereira rather breezed through 300 plus years; but they warned us that they weren't extending the bounds of scholarship. They were just giving us an ABC of who the players were, how the "game" was played by each side and what rules got changed when. The pictures in this edition are many and of "National Geographic" quality.
All in all, I thought it was a thoughtful and informative ABC.
Terry Jones and Alan Ereira did a good job in my case. I knew a little bit about the Crusades. Richard the Lionheart led one crusade against Saladin, who I once thought invented tea (Salada was a brand of tea when I was young.) Richard got stuck in Germany, where he sang songs from his prison cell. That's all I "knew" about the Crusades. Now I know a bit more.
It's not a funny book. Don't expect Monty Python. Mr. Jones and Mr. Ereira's slant, in my opinion, is that the Pope called on Europe's kings and knights to conquer and defend the Holy Places in order to
1) solve for the knights the problem between God's command "Thou shalt not kill" and Christ's "Blessed are the peacemakers ... Blessed are the meek ...." against their job to kill to defend their kings and homelands from other Christian kings and knights. "If you kill the infidels, you will not sin but you will gain forgiveness and even glory."
2) get those randy and rambunctious knights out of Europe, to a place where they can do their valiant stuff and get loot to live on. All those landless knights needed to get rich to maintain their knightly status.
3) become the absolute Head of the Christian Church. Many crusading armies from western Europe fought the Eastern Orthodox and other sorts of Christians in the Middle East as well as the Moslems, or instead of the Moslems. The Pope in Rome said nothing against it.
The authors also wanted to show the Moslem as well as the Christian view of the Crusades. Islam gets a little more sympathetic treatment but not much. Sunnis and Shiites were fighting each other. Caliphs, Sultans and Viziers were being assassinated. They didn't expect Christian interference in their countries; but the Franks could be useful allies in getting victory over their own enemies.
Now, Jones and Ereira rather breezed through 300 plus years; but they warned us that they weren't extending the bounds of scholarship. They were just giving us an ABC of who the players were, how the "game" was played by each side and what rules got changed when. The pictures in this edition are many and of "National Geographic" quality.
All in all, I thought it was a thoughtful and informative ABC.
January 5, 2023
Some folk find history rather dry... There is no probability of that here as Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) takes on the rather bloody era of the Crusades. Yes, he has his serious moments but manages to still leaven the history here with his trademark humour. Terry manages to provide a wonderfully edifying journey through the power, politics, deceit, religion, murder, business and treachery that were the Crusades...and as a bonus, you'll learn about the Syrian castle of Hosn al-Akrad which was defended by a battalion of sheep...
After having read The Source (a novel by James A Michener) which also included the Crusade period, this was a must-read for me when it came out in the mid-1990s and I was not at all disappointed. A very good quick overview of the Crusades (with touches of both humour and pathos) for those who might not want to read a mostly military history.
After having read The Source (a novel by James A Michener) which also included the Crusade period, this was a must-read for me when it came out in the mid-1990s and I was not at all disappointed. A very good quick overview of the Crusades (with touches of both humour and pathos) for those who might not want to read a mostly military history.
November 9, 2019
I found this book to be exactly what I was looking for. A quick accurate historical account of the Crusades. I found Terry Jones sly sense of humour in the pages a nice touch and would recommend this book to anyone whose looking to learn more about the Crusades with their only really knowledge being that it happened. It’s not super in depth but it gives a great overview.
September 23, 2017
This was great. An excellent companion to Richard Fidler's Ghost Empire. Full of light touches as it puts the crusades into a broader context. Read this if you want to learn where militant Muslim's came from and about the world changing events that echo into the modern era and your daily newspaper.
April 12, 2020
An interesting basic history of the Crusades which shows both the religious fervor and the terrible violence involved in the crusades. As someone who studied this subject at A Level, it was useful to have a recap of the events.
December 27, 2020
A rather delightful read, Crusades gives you a fair overview of the crusading phenomenon. The last couple of chapters felt a bit rushed, though, as scantily depth was included.
What I enjoyed most were the sarcastic comments scattered in the text - a nice way to enliven the fact-based narration.
What I enjoyed most were the sarcastic comments scattered in the text - a nice way to enliven the fact-based narration.
August 15, 2024
A thorough, beautiful and often hilarious history of the lands of Outremer.
October 14, 2024
This was pretty good. Informative and well researched, also interspersed with humor. A nice light hearted and approachable overview of the entire era of history, without getting too in the weeds.
Want to read
June 19, 2025Dewey 909.07
June 16, 2024
Banger banger banger
September 5, 2012
Savage, evil bastards! Men, Women n Children of any faith were up for slaughter if they were in the way(or even if they weren't). In the name of their lord, they sort ta make a new kingdom, but spent so much time fighting each other they ended up making a region that was fairly peaceful and respectful of all three doctrines, before they arrived, into an almost identical place as where they came from. So much for heaven on earth, ha! Well written, well researched and well funny.
August 11, 2014
Given the author, Monty Python's Terry Jones, and the purpose of this book, to accompany an A&E miniseries, I wasn't expecting a lot from this book other than a rollicking fun read. It was a fun read, but I was also surprised by how closely the narrative was tied to primary sources. This is a good, solid introduction to the Crusades, written with an eye to telling a good story. The only negative thing about the books was its persistent cynicism, but that's only to be expected.
August 10, 2015
Crusades is an extremely well-researched and well-written history of the crusades, as told from another point of view -- not that of Euro-centric 'civilization'. I'd seen the BBC broadcast and wanted more information so found the book at a library. LOVED the book and purchased it. It's sad, it's funny; it is, I feel, very truthful as to what went on then. Primary sources are listed throughout, supported by secondary sources (which cite currently unavailable primary sources).
November 27, 2019
Probably one of the best introductions to the Crusades!
A well written (and sourced) introduction to the crusades. The sort of book that anyone can read without having a background in history.
If I had to nitpick then that would be that I'd like to have seen more illustrations and maps in the book. However, the book is brilliant as it is.
Get this book if you have any interest in the Crusades, read this before going onto anything more in-depth.
A well written (and sourced) introduction to the crusades. The sort of book that anyone can read without having a background in history.
If I had to nitpick then that would be that I'd like to have seen more illustrations and maps in the book. However, the book is brilliant as it is.
Get this book if you have any interest in the Crusades, read this before going onto anything more in-depth.
May 17, 2013
A well written book on the Crusades, documenting the history of religious conflict between Christianity and Islam. The author highlights the origins of the Crusade, the actual battles for the Holy Land as well as the slaughter, and plunder, and once the mission was achieved by the West, the obstacles and problems encountered in keeping Jerusalem.
September 17, 2013
Another Terry Jones and Alan Ereira success, I read it in less than a day. Wonderful insights from the non-christian point of view, refreshing reading and once again some well-placed puns on our modern "european" history.
February 7, 2008
Companion book to the A&E/History Channel series. Fun, and a great read. Makes the history easy to understand!!
October 27, 2008
Good primer for Crusades Hx. Relaxed writing but broadly paints most of the big events. Easy read, amusing and informative. A taster before jumping into Runciman's work.
September 6, 2013
Excellent summary written in style understandable to a person not very well read in Medieval history.
Want to read
March 7, 2016very interesting. Some previously unheard of ideas. Maybe some things injected into story possibly incorrect?
December 2, 2020
Very good quick read introduction to an extremely broad and complex topic.
September 12, 2016
Another book to accompany a TV series. More serious than Medieval Lives.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews