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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 909.07
EAN num: 9780028642437
ISBN number: 0028642430
Label: Alpha
Manufacturer: Alpha
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: October 18, 2001
Publishing house: Alpha
Sale Popularity Level: 535419
Studio: Alpha
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Rated by buyers 
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Im not sure why certain reviewers hated this book so much. I really enjoyed it and bought it as a gift for my nephew. He loved it. This book is funny, interesting and easy to read. Its also one of my FAVORITE books. I dont care if some academic chair jockey has problems with the correctness of the history. Who wrote history anyway? Some Boring Academic. Well go read something boring then! This book was very enjoyable and interesting. If that sounds like something you would like to read then pick it up. I for one am tired of being lulled to sleep by "Researched experts". The reason no one reads their books is because they dont know how to write a story. This book keeps you interested and brings the people involved in the history of the crusades to life. Nuff said.
Rated by buyers 
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I'm not a certified expert on the Crusades, but it's easy to see that this book was written for pure entertainment, with little attention to detail.The author's remark that serfs had anal sex with their women "as quickly as you can say 'jackrabbit.'" was more like a dirty joke that really didn't belong in a book which children often read. But I also didn't like it because it had only one small map, and it was confusing, showing same-colored lines criss-crossing each other so you couldn't tell the direction of one crusade from the other. Plus, there were no photographs of ancient sites of the Crusades. If you don't mind any of this, go for it. But if you want a truly informative book on the subject, read Morris Bishop's "The Middle Ages."
Rated by buyers -
The tile is more than appropriate. It is idiot's version of the crusades written by an apparent idiot. The author seems to be an utterly clueless amateur about military matters, medieval combat or arms & armor, and the history of feudal warfare in the Middle East. He seems to have relied on the worst sources as references while writing in a condescending manner about his topic as if trying to guarantee the reader will come to disdain the subject of history.
Rated by buyers -
This book is poorly researched and packed with cliche and bias, to the point of insult to ancestry. You've seen some examples of the inaccuracies in the other reviews. Mostly Mark Twain-esque dribble, and far from very first hand research of historical sources, a major handicap in modern history books which repeat false nonsense.
Much of this book simply spits in the face of common sense. For example, saying knights in the melee of a tournament fought by "...hacking at one another with heavy (20- to 30-pound) broadswords." If that doesn't show a detachment from reality and lack of research, along with reliance on modern fiction, I don't know what does.
Rated by buyers -
If you want a sound, basic introduction to the Crusades... this isn't it. There are a number of other books I would recommend rather than this one. I've given it one star because I can't give it a 0 or a minus.
On a cursory flick through, I found examples of discredited legends being trotted out as fact, and glaring basic factual errors, e.g. the Piedmontese Conrad de Monferrat being described as a "Flemish knight".
Baudouin IV's leprosy is described in sensationalist terms. A young man who, although blind and crippled, was mentally entirely capable and actively involved in government until within a few days of his death cannot be written off as a "living corpse", as if his presence at Kerak were merely as a mascot. No, he was still very much in charge (see Hamilton's biography of him).
Nor did Henri de Champagne "slip on a banana skin": he overbalanced near a window, and his dwarf tried to save him (you couldn't make this up!).
The author is not a historian, and gives no sign of having used primary sources. Christopher Tyerman's 'Fighting for Christendom: Holy War & the Crusades', Jonathan Riley-Smith's 'History of the Crusades', and (though somewhat dated) Terry Jones's anecdote-heavy Runciman-lite 'The Crusades' and Georges Tate's 'The Crusades & the Holy Land' illustrated pocket book are all better than this. Avoid.
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