An edition of People of the First Crusade (1997)

People of the First Crusade

People of the First Crusade
Michael Foss, Michael Foss
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Last edited by MARC Bot
March 3, 2021 | History
An edition of People of the First Crusade (1997)

People of the First Crusade

In this work Michael Foss casts new light on the reality of and motives behind the Crusades in general, and in particular the First Crusade, which set the tone for all those that followed.

As the eleventh century came to an end, the Christian lands of Western Europe were in trouble. Afflicted by repeated invasions from the north, by the collapse of internal order and safety, by the increasing laxity and ignorance of the clergy, and by the unrestrained tyranny of the feudal lords, life in the West was, as one philosopher described it, "nasty, brutish, and short." To make matters worse, the Seljuk Turks, recently converted to Islam, had overrun the Holy Land.

Pope Urban II, searching for a way out of the increasing anarchy and to rid himself of unruly, marauding knights, exhorted the faithful, at the Council of Clermont in 1095, to free Jerusalem from the Infidels. The response was immediate and enthusiastic.

Proud knights, poor peasants, artisans armed with pikes and bows and arrows - and often only sticks or clubs - set out on the great adventure, fighting or negotiating their way through strange, exotic lands, until, four long years later, the ragged remnants of the once proud army stood below the forbidding walls of Jerusalem.

Michael Foss tells the stories of these men and women of the First Crusade, often in their own words, bringing the time and events to life. Through these eyewitness accounts the cliches of history vanish, the distinctions between hero and villain blur: the Saracen is as base or noble, as brave or cruel, as the crusader. In that sense, the fateful clash between Christianity and Islam teaches us a lesson for our own time.

For the attitudes and prejudices expressed on both sides in the First Crusade became the basic currency for all later exchanges, down to our own day, between the two great monotheistic faiths of Mohammed and Christ.

Publish Date
Publisher
Caxton Editions
Pages
232

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: People of the First Crusade
People of the First Crusade
January 1, 2000, Caxton Editions
Hardcover
Cover of: People of the First Crusade
People of the First Crusade
1997, Michael O'Mara Books
in English
Cover of: People of the First Crusade
People of the First Crusade
1997, Arcade Pub., Distributed by Little, Brown and Co.
in English - 1st U.S. ed.

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Book Details


Classifications

Library of Congress
D161.2 .F67 2000

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Number of pages
232
Dimensions
9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
Weight
1.2 pounds

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL9807791M
ISBN 10
1840671556
ISBN 13
9781840671551
OCLC/WorldCat
47676809
Library Thing
599814
Goodreads
1476126

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
March 3, 2021 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
July 27, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
April 29, 2011 Edited by OCLC Bot Added OCLC numbers.
August 12, 2010 Edited by IdentifierBot added LibraryThing ID
April 30, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record