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Payne, Robert
Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1998, 428pp.
ISBN: 1853266892
List price: £4.99 (softback)

The Crusades Bookstore Review:
This edition is not available in the US. The links on the right to Amazon US will instead take you to the previous edition, The Dream and the Tomb.

The Crusades is a well-written account of the central two-hundred years of the crusading period. Payne writes in the style of Runciman - focussing mainly on the principle characters, with evocative descriptions interspersed with translated excerpts. There are some inaccuracies, but on the whole it is a well-presented and easy read. 

From the cover:
In this masterly work, Robert Payne brings to life the Crusades that founded vast kingdoms in Palestine nearly one thousand years ago. This is a story of battles and valour, greed and piety, folly and baseness that mark the first major clash of Christianity and Islam.

Review, Publisher's Weekly:

Payne's book recreates two hundred years of Crusader history with a blazing intensity the displays to the full his powers both as a scholar and storyteller. He covers all eight Crusades in a magnificent sweep, from that of 1095, inspired by Pope Urban II, to Louis IX's disastrous Crusade of 1270. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the Middle Ages, and makes marvellous reading. 

About the author:
Robert Payne spent close to seven years researching this book, which was published posthumously.

Top Titles
General histories
Individual Crusades
Military Orders
Non-Christian Perspective
Background topics
Fiction

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Copyright © 1999 Dr Tom Rees