Middle East Books - Page 12

The New Complete Works of Josephus

Flavius Josephus

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Book too Long. 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The contents of this book are valuable to the student of Bible Studies. The problem I have found is that the book's contents are much too long for one book. It would be much easier to read if it was in two volumes and slightly larger print.

Good Complete Edition for the Price 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I'm not quite sure how to place "The New Complete Works of Josephus" (Kregel Academic & Professional, 1999) among other editions of Josephus that are available.

This work is a "revised" version of Whiston's 1737 translation, which has been "corrected" to an unknown degree by Paul L. Maier.

Besides Josephus' writings, the book includes 7 "dissertations" on the text by Whiston such as "The testimonies of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, and James the Just, vindicated". These along with the footnotes reveal a translator anxious to defend the authenticity of his source text(s), the historical accuracy of Josephus, the correspondence of Josephus's accounts with the Old and New Testament, etc.

Whiston seems to have a vested interest in Josephus as supporting and supplementing various Biblical accounts. He definitely comments upon the work from a Christian (he was actually an Arian) rather than a purely critical perspective. However, I see no reason at this time to believe this infects his translation with bias.

Assuming that "Complete Works" has been completely corrected, it's greatest failing is being very difficult to read. Apparently, Whiston had something against periods, but really loved semicolons. Many a sentence runs on and on to paragraph length. The syntax is tortuous.

The same publisher has two other editions of Josephus that are very different from Complete Works, yet seem very similar to each other. These are "Essential Works" (Josephus: The Essential Works) and "Essential Writings" (Josephus: The Essential Writings). Both are current editions using a translation by Paul L. Maier.

The following is a sample of Maier's new translation followed by Whiston's. The text corresponds to Loeb Bk. VI, Ch. 14, 374-378


From "Josephus: The Essential Writings", Kregel, 1990, ISBN 0825429641 (Maier translation)

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the bodies of the slain, they found those of Saul and his sons, and they cut off their heads and impaled their bodies on the walls of Bethshan. But when the Israelites of Jabesh-Gilead learned about this mutilation, the bravest of them marched all night to Bethshan, removed the bodies of Saul and his sons, and carried them to Jabesh, where they buried them. The enemy was either not able or not bold enough to stop them, because of their great courage.

Saul came to this end, as Samuel had predicted, because of his disobedience regarding the Amalekites and his destruction of the high priest and his family. He reigned eighteen years during the lifetime of Samuel, and 22 more after his death.


From "The New Complete Works of Josephus", Kregel, 1999, ISBN 0825429242 ("corrected" Whiston translation)

On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip their enemies that were killed, they got the bodies of Saul and of his sons, and stripped them, and cut off their heads; and they sent messengers all about their country, to acquaint them that their enemies were fallen; and they dedicated their armor in the temple of Astarte, but hung their bodies on crosses at the walls of the city Beth Shan, which is now called Scythopolis. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard that they had dismembered the dead bodies of Saul and of his sons, they deemed it so horrid a thing to overlook this barbarity, and to suffer them to be without funeral rites, that the most courageous and hardy among them (and indeed that city had in it men that were very stout both in body and mind) journeyed all night, and came to Beth Shan, and approached the enemy's wall, and taking down the bodies of Saul and of his sons they caried them to Jabesh, while the enemy was not able enough or bold enough to hinder them, because of their great courage. So the people of Jabesh all wept and buried their bodies in the best place of their country, which was named Aroura; and they observed a public mourning for them seven days, with their wives and children, beating their breasts, and lamenting the king and his sons, without either tasting meat or drink [until evening].

To this his end did Saul come, according to the prophecy of Samuel, because he disobeyed the commands of God about the Amalekites, and on the account of his destroying the family of Ahimelech the high priest, with Ahimelech himself, and the city of the high priests. Now Saul when he had reigned eighteen years while Samuel was alive, and after his death two [and twenty], ended his life in this manner.


Even granting that the Maier translation is abridged, you can see that the Whiston translation suffers pitifully where readability is concerned.


If you're still with me I'd say this. If you can afford it and need the complete works, buy the Loeb editions. I can't personally vouch for them, but in the introduction to "Complete Works" Maier himself states that those represent the "best English translation".

If you don't need each and every line and want text you can actually parse, perhaps you should buy "Essential Works" or "Essential Writings". I can't tell you which, since I don't have them and I'm mystified as to what the difference might be. Of course, there are other translations and editions from other publishers of repute that are certainly comparable in readability.

If you need (or want) every line for a very economical price, "Complete Works" will do.

Good luck reading it.

Editorial Review:

(Revised and expanded edition; commentary by Paul L. Maier) Unabridged. Includes harmony of Greek and English numbering systems, table of Jewish weights and measures, Old Testament text parallels, twenty full-page illustrations, and an updated index.

Vietnam: A History

Stanley Karnow

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 61 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

poorly researched and providing little insight into the war 1 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This book has given an authority that its contents and research in no way deserves. A more appopriate title would be "Vietnam: An American mythology" because facts be damned, Karnow is dedicated to telling the story he wants to tell.

The first thing to understand is that the majority of this book does not concern itself with America's "vietnam war" in terms of the large conventional conflict between 1965 and 1975. Karnow spends the first 426 pages leading up to 1965. What should be background in some sense consumes the book. And in terms of the book, the historical subjects are where Karnow's knowledge is worst. As an example, Karnow describes Chinese, Roman and 19th century french methods of rule as essentially the same system. He fails to grasp that Vietnam was under chinese rule for the majority of its history and that "nationalism" was the exception rather than the rule.

His coverage of Ho Chi Minh essentially is the propoganda view of the man himself. Karnow is incapable of looking beyond it or doing original research on his subject. He gets the facts of what happened in 1945 completely wrong. He buy's into Ho's propoganda that the Ho led a popular "revolution" against the Japanese. In reality, the surrendering Japanese in 1945 handed over power to a variety of local groups with the goal of causing the allies trouble. Contrary to Karnow's poor research, there was no revolution in 1945 and there was no Viet Minh "government" except on paper. The Viet Minh were so weak that they were pushed aside by the local french within a few weeks without even support from the outside.

Karnow disposes of the French war in Vietnam in around 30 pages. Following the mythology script, he focuses most of his attention on Dien Bien Phu and ignores the complexity and details of the French phase. Its a superficial account at best.

The Eisenhower and Kennedy chapters on Diem show off Karnow's basic ignorance of the situation in Vietnam at that time. Rather than being about Vietnam, its more like Vietnam as seen by Washington in those years. There is no attempt at understanding the actual politics of the Diem era. The information on North Vietnam (or as Karnow strangely refers to them "the communists") is completely lacking. The internal politics of North Vietnam are ignored as much as possible.

As an example of Karnow's strange views: "In May 1959, the North Vietnamese leadership created a unit called Group 559, its task to begin enlarging the tradtional communist infiltration route, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, into the south." Group 559 in reality launched an invasion of Laos putting a large part of the territory of that counry under Vietnamese rule which continues on even now. Karnow's notion of a "traditional infiltration route" is completely false. North Vietnam invaded Laos to flank the border of south vietnam and to use occupied Laos as a base for attacking Vietnam.

As the book goes on, Karnow presents the traditional mythology about peaceful neutral cambodia. What he fails to say is that Sihanouk was a dictator who murdered his opponents and kept power by alternately allying himself with the left and the right. He also fails to mention the well-known fact that rather than being neutral, Sihanouk (and cambodia) had signed a deal with China were their rice crop would be bought at an inflated price in exchange for opening cambodian ports to arms shipments and allowing Vietnamese bases on cambodian soil. The so-called "neutrality" story that Karnow repeats is nonsense.

The last couple of hundred pages that cover the war itself give a mixed up account that does a disservice to both the military and political history of the war. He doesn't understand how the war was fought in Vietnam, he doesn't understand the politics of any of the players and he is deeply attached to the mythology that vietnam was a "gureilla war" fought against a local insurgency. He doesn't pick up on the fact that Vietnam was largely a conventional war fought between large units with no front lines. Entire divisions of north vietnam came south to fight american divisions in the field. The counterinsurgency mythology of vietnam on the part of Karnow and many others is in no small part due to the fact that reporters were stationed in Saigon and did day-trips out to counterinsurgency operations in the Saigon area.

And Karnow gets how the war ended completely wrong. The war ended because the entire North Vietnamese army launched a conventional military invasion with tanks over the border. In the end, the "invincible" insurgency in the countryside couldn't win anything.

Karnow is also useless in terms of the legacy of the war. The book ends with the North Vietnamese celebrating their victory in Saigon. He doesn't cover the disaster of the postwar era. He doesn't cover the irony of "Imperial" Vietnam turning Laos and Cambodia into colonies within a few years of the war except to note it as minimally as he can. While we get hundreds of pages of history on the front end of the war, North Vietnam marching into Saigon is the end of history.

In summary this is a bad book. It spends way too many pages on the wrong subjects, suffers from a lack of research, depends too much on anicdotal views of history and presents an utterly misleading version of the war.

For those who want a complete (but very dry) accurate military history of the conflict, I suggest "The Rise and Fall of an American Army by Shelby Stanton." For those interested in the complete story of Cambodia, I would suggest the first half of Pol Pot Anatomy of a Nightmare by Philip Short.

Stanley Karnow is an appaulingly bad historian and I keep hoping for a more accurate generalist history of the war to eclipse this book. But there still is nothing out there.

Editorial Review:

This Pulitzer Prize-winning account of one of this century's most controversial wars is filled with revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with hundreds of participants on both sides. The central theme of the book is that America's leaders, prompted as much by domestic politics as by global ambitions, carried the United States into South-east Asia with little regard for the realities of the region. The chain of events that led to the deployment of thousands of American troops has been set into its deeper historical context - especially the growth of Vietnamese nationalism over two millennia.

Trigger Men: Shadow Team, Spider-Man, the Magnificent Bastards, and the American Combat Sniper

Hans Halberstadt

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Combat veteran and author Hans Halberstadt takes readers deeper inside the elusive world of snipers than ever before, from recruitment and training to the brutality of the killing fields. 



Shadow Team is probably the most productive sniper team in American military history, accounting for 276 confirmed kills in a six months span with no casualties of their own. Their leader made what was, and may still be, the longest range kill with a 7.62mm rifle. For the first time ever they explain what it's like to kill a man and what it takes to become one of the elite.



The tragic tale of Headhunter Two is altogether different. This four man sniper team from a regiment known within the Corps as the Magnificent Bastards was killed in 2004 in Ramadi, Iraq. Their deaths not only caused a reevaluation of sniper tactics and techniques, but created a desire for vengeance that was exacted nearly two years later in dramatic fashion.



Based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews, Halberstadt gets inside the sniper mind and shows how they think and interact with each other, how missions are planned and executed, how the weapons work, and even what happens when a bullet finally strikes its target. There are only a few hundred snipers from all the services put together in combat at any one time, making this true inside story a rare and important event.



Both a uniquely intimate look at what makes a sniper tick and a harrowing read filled with dramatic war tales, Trigger Men is a book about killers and killing, without apology and without remorse.

Vengeance

George Jonas

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Vengeance is a true story that reads like a novel. It is the account of five ordinary Israelis, selected to vanish into "the cold" of espionage secrecy -- their mission to hunt down and kill the PLO terrorists responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

This is the account of that secret mission, as related by the leader of the group -- the first Mossad agent to come out of "deep cover" and tell the story of a heroic endeavor that was shrouded in silence and speculation for years. He reveals the long and dangerous operation whose success was bought at a terrible cost to the idealistic volunteer agents themselves.

"Avner" was the leader of that team, handpicked by Golda Meir to avenge the monstrous crime of Munich. He and his young companions, cut off from any direct contact with Israel, set out systematically to find and kill the central figures of the PLO's Munich operation, tracking them down wherever they lived.

The mechanics, the horror, the day-by-day suspense of what they did surpass by far anything John le Carré or Robert Ludlum could imagine, as they themselves were tracked in turn (and some killed) by PLO assassins, changing identities constantly, moving from country to country, devoting their young lives to the brutal task of vengeance.

Vengeance is a profoundly human document, a real-life espionage classic that plunges the reader into the shadow world of terrorism and political murder. But it goes far beyond that, to explore firsthand the feelings of disgust and doubt that gradually came to torment each member of the Israeli team, and that in the end inexorably changed their view of the mission -- and themselves.

Vengeance opens a window onto a secret world, a book that at the same time inspires and horrifies. For its subject is an act of revenge that goes to the very heart of the ancient biblical questions of good and evil.

The Punishment of Virtue: Walking the Frontline of the War on Terror with a Woman Who Has Made it Her Home

Sarah Chayes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting but poorly written 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.

An utterly confusing account of the war in Afghanistan. Its merit is that it gives the reader a probably realistic impression of the complexity and intransparency of Afghan politics and history...nothing is what it seems. Its flaws are chronological disorder, personal grudges and reporter-centrism...("look at me getting the real dope against all odds" and "look at me, the only sensitive observer").

Editorial Review:

As a former star reporter for NPR, Sarah Chayes developed a devoted listenership for her on-site reports on conflicts around the world. In The Punishment of Virtue, she reveals the misguided U.S. policy in Afghanistan in the wake of the defeat of the Taliban, which has severely undermined the effort to build democracy and allowed corrupt tribal warlords back into positions of power and the Taliban to re-infiltrate the country. This is an eyeopening chronicle that highlights the often infuriating realities of a vital front in the war on terror, exposing deeper, fundamental problems with current U.S. strategy.

Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History

Patrick Hunt

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

10 Things to Love About This Book 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Patrick Hunt put together a delightful little book from the themes he covers in a popular college course, Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History. This well written book takes the reader on a journey across the globe and back and forth through time.

As a Biblical historian, I found the text not overly academic without shirking responsibilities of noting cultural context and impact on traditional understanding in various schools of thought. Hunt chronicles such discoveries as the Terracotta Warriors, the Rosetta Stone and Machu Picchu and their effect on science, history and popular culture.

Hunt's book gives meaningful information that will serve all readers well regardless, of their walk of life. If it doesn't make you fantasize about being Indiana Jones, it will certainly entice you to travel to some of, if not all of, the exquisite locales described within the book.

Editorial Review:

The world’s greatest archaeological finds and what they tell us about lost civilizations

Renowned archaeologist Patrick Hunt brings his top ten list of ancient archaeological discoveries to life in this concise and captivating book. The Rosetta Stone, Troy, Nivenah’s Assyrian Library, King Tut’s Tomb, Machu Picchu, Pompeii, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Thera, Olduvai Gorge, and the Tomb of 10,000 Warriors—Hunt reveals the fascinating stories of these amazing discoveries and explains the ways in which they added to our knowledge of human history and permanently altered our worldview. Part travel guide to the wonders of the world and part primer on ancient world history, Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History captures the awe and excitement of finding a lost window into ancient civilization.

The Kybalion: A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece

Three Initiates

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 59 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great content, poor printing! 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have had several copies of this book (I keep buying them because I keep giving my copies away). My criticism is simply aesthetic - this particular issue of The Kybalion is poorly formatted and contains numerous errors. The best copy I had has a picture of two hands on the cover...

Besides all that, this book is amazing. Hands down the most powerful thing I have ever read.

Interesting 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book covers a lot of territory and other reviewers have spoken their minds. Some comments here on one aspect of the teaching: In all our minds, there is a masculine principle and a feminine principle, also called the "I" and the "Me". Vibrations from the "I" stimulate the "Me" and creativity results. Writers, composers, visual artists and inventors create in this way. The "I" consists mostly of will and the "Me" consists mostly of imagination. If these two principles work harmonously in a person, the result is creative originality. Interesting theory as to how we create.

Editorial Review:

The Kybalion: A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece is a concise and elegant treatise on occultism and High Magic in Greece and Egypt. Here you will be introduced to the Seven Hermetic Principles, a foundation upon which one can build their own personal spiritual path.

The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine

Yaroslav Trofimov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

On not judging a book by its cover 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I was prepared to dislike this book, suspecting an "action pack thriller", full of loopy historical inaccuracies, if not outright fantasy - all because of the jarring black and red cover. Instead I found a lean, scholarly, and almost certainly dispassionately accurate account of one of the more important and not very well understood events in the last quarter of the 20th Century. It is written in a fast-paced action style, flipping back and forth among the major actors in this drama, but that enhances and does not hinder his story. Ramifications of this siege are affecting us today.

Mr. Trofimov knows his subject well, amazingly well. He deftly describes the numerous disparate historical antecedents to the taking of the mosque by Islamic fanatics, and the reactions of the major actors. The Ikhwan, the religious brotherhood which was instrumental in Abdul Aziz's conquest and consolidation of what would be the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and his decision that they overstepped their limits, and so he had to mow them down with borrowed British machine guns in the early `30's, leading to a sense of martyrdom in the remnants of the defeated communities. America was tired of "foreign adventures," Vietnam being the prime reason, and therefore the CIA was severely constrained, with the coups it directed in Chile and Iran very much in mind. There was the Kingdom itself, being overwhelmed by the "future shock" of oil revenues, and the attendant rapid "modernization," with its own ills, inevitably leaving some people behind

As with many events of this magnitude, ironies abound; they are described but not overplayed. The Royal Family must obtain a ruling from the Ulema, the chief religious body, that force can be used to remove the rebels, yet philosophically, the Ulema is in large measure in agreement with the complaints of the rebels. For days virtually no one knows the exact identify of the people who seized the mosque, so the United States insists it was Iran, and the Shiites; meanwhile Iran is insisting it is the United States and the infidels. Perhaps the best trained Arab force that could assist the Saudis is the Hashemite Jordanians, but they can not be used since they were once rulers in the Hejaz, were defeated by Abdul Aziz, and if they returned, "may not leave." Eventually the Saudis turned to the French, "because they were discreet and could keep a secret," which also proved false.

I found the section of the French involvement particularly fascinating, since it dispelled the rumors that had dominated this topic, and described in an authoritative manner the exact nature of the fairly limited intervention (3 men, and supplies). Characteristically of Trofimov's account, he states the facts which he could ascertain, but does not speculate whether Barril, one of the three Frenchmen, actually entered Mecca.

Equally important was the depiction of the immediate ramifications throughout the Muslim world, who blamed the United States, in large part because of Khomeini. US Embassies in Libya and Pakistan were burned, with loss of American life.

John Burgess, on his CrossRoads Arabia website, pointed out some (relatively minor) flaws in Trofimov's book, citing the reason that the Bedouin were settled was not, as Trofimov contends, to better perform their ablutions, but rather to stop their raiding. I'd add a couple of my own: the Nejd would never be described as the "central Arabian highlands" (p14), and, of course, 1400 is not the first year of new century, 1401 is.

On a personal note, I traveled by road in the Asir, from Abha to Taif, one week prior to the taking of the mosque, and may very well have passed some of the participants. On that trip, at a police checkpoint, was the only time in my 20 years in the Kingdom, that a Muslim did not give the proper response to my "As-Salaam Alikum" greeting; the followers of Juhayman believe(d) that a Muslim should not respond to an infidel when he gave the traditional greeting.

In Trofimov's summing up, he correctly identifies Juhayman's deed as only one of the currents which lead to the formation of Al Qaeda. He also points out a second one, arriving from Egypt, in the person of Ayman Al Zawahir (who had been inspired by the execution of his hero, Sayyid Qutb). Of course, a third could easily be postulated: the unintended consequences, a/k/a "blowback" in CIA jargon, of America and Saudi Arabia funding and arming Islamic fundamentalist to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. And a fourth: the CIA coup against the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953.

Epilogues can be used to examine some of the "what ifs" of an event. One of the rumors concerning Juhayman's capture stated that he had asked: "But where are the armies of the north"? Trofimov does not cover this, and only alludes to the self-delusional nature of individuals who succumb to millennial dogmas; the alleged Mahdi believes that he is "bullet proof," with the attendant fatal consequences. How many of my fellow citizens believe in the "rapture," the postulated end of the world when Christ returns, and would actually like to hasten the date? And "what if" they took concrete actions to accomplish this goal? Our own Juhayman...

Trofimov account is almost certainly the best account we will ever have on the seizure of the mosque in Mecca in 1979, and is highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

In The Siege of Mecca, acclaimed journalist Yaroslav Trofimov pulls back the curtain on a thrilling, pivotal, and overlooked episode of modern history, examining its repercussions on the Middle East and the world.

On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. That same morning, gunmen stunned the world by seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca, creating a siege that trapped 100,000 people and lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths. But in the days before CNN and Al Jazeera, the press barely took notice. Trofimov interviews for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, and draws upon hundreds of newly declassified documents. With the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals the long-lasting aftereffects of the uprising and its influence on the world today.

Jerusalem Countdown: Revised and Updated

John Hagee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 109 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Jerusalem Countdown 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

John Hagee does not always follow the bible, but interprets it to suit his own motivations.

Don't Waste Your Money 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

First of all I got this book from my public library. There are several things wrong with this book. 1. God is not a Republican, nor is He a Democrat. 2. Armageddon or Har-Magedon is God's war upon all nations.(Dan. 2:44) 3. Har-Magedon is not a nuclear war between mankind's nations. 4. The United States nor any other nation can not stop Har-Magedon. 5. There is no such place as hell fire. The Hebrew word sheol and Greek word Hades translated hell in some Bibles is the common grave of mankind. That is the death inherited from Adam.(Eccl. 9:5,10; Psa.146:4; Eze. 18:4) The Greek word gehenna means everlasting destruction.(Matt. 10:28)The lake of fire in Revelation is symbolic of eternal destruction.(Rev. 20:10,14) v. 14 explains :this means the second death which means everlasting destruction.Death & Hades are thrown there. Are Death & Hades concious beings that can suffer eternally? 6. Since Pentecost 33 C.E. God has been using the Christian congregation, Not the nation of Israel or any of man's governments.( Acts 2:22-36;Phil.2: 9-11) If you want accurate information see Jehovah's Witnesses.

Editorial Review:

This highly anticipated audio version on CD of John Hagee's best selling updated edition of Jerusalem Countdown, unveils the reasons radical Islam and Israel cannot dwell peaceably together. Dr. Hagee paints a convincing picture explaining why Christians must support the State of Israel by saying, Those nations who align with God's purpose will receive His blessing. Those who follow a policy of opposition to God's purpose will receive the swift and severe judgement of God without limitation. Can anyone actually believe that the Islamic fanatics presently in charge of the Iranian government would not use nuclear weapons on Israel, America, and the World?

God's War: A New History of the Crusades

Christopher Tyerman

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Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

God's War offers a sweeping new vision of one of history's most astounding events: the Crusades.

From 1096 to 1500, European Christians fought to recreate the Middle East, Muslim Spain, and the pagan Baltic in the image of their God. The Crusades are perhaps both the most familiar and most misunderstood phenomena of the medieval world, and here Christopher Tyerman seeks to recreate, from the ground up, the centuries of violence committed as an act of religious devotion.

The result is a stunning reinterpretation of the Crusades, revealed as both bloody political acts and a manifestation of a growing Christian communal identity. Tyerman uncovers a system of belief bound by aggression, paranoia, and wishful thinking, and a culture founded on war as an expression of worship, social discipline, and Christian charity.

This astonishing historical narrative is imbued with figures that have become legends--Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, Philip Augustus. But Tyerman also delves beyond these leaders to examine the thousands and thousands of Christian men--from Knights Templars to mercenaries to peasants--who, in the name of their Savior, abandoned their homes to conquer distant and alien lands, as well as the countless people who defended their soil and eventually turned these invaders back. With bold analysis, Tyerman explicates the contradictory mix of genuine piety, military ferocity, and plain greed that motivated generations of Crusaders. He also offers unique insight into the maturation of a militant Christianity that defined Europe's identity and that has forever influenced the cyclical antagonisms between the Christian and Muslim worlds.

Drawing on all of the most recent scholarship, and told with great verve and authority, God's War is the definitive account of a fascinating and horrifying story that continues to haunt our contemporary world.

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