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´Wonderfully written and characteristically brilliant´ Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

´Elegant, readable ... an impressive synthesis ... Not many historians could have done it´ - Jonathan Sumption, Spectator

´Tyerman´s book is fascinating not just for what it has to tell us about the Crusades, but for the mirror it holds up to today´s religious extremism´ - Tom Holland, Spectator

Thousands left their homelands in the Middle Ages to fight wars abroad. But how did the Crusades actually happen? From recruitment propaganda to raising money, ships to siege engines, medicine to the power of prayer, this vivid, surprising history shows holy war - and medieval society - in a new light.

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An impressive synthesis of a complicated subject, presented in elegant, readable prose. Not many historians could have done it Jonathan Sumption The Spectator

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Christopher Tyerman is a Fellow and Tutor in History at Hertford College, Oxford and Lecturer in Medieval History at New College, Oxford. He has written extensively on the crusades, most recently God´s War: A New History of the Crusades and The Debate on the Crusades. He is also the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of the Chronicles of the First Crusade.

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