How to Plan a Crusade

by Christopher Tyerman

Overview

The story of the wars and conquests initiated by the First Crusade and its successors is itself so compelling that most accounts move quickly from describing the Pope's calls to arms to the battlefield. In this highly original and enjoyable new book, Christopher Tyerman focuses on something obvious but overlooked: the massive, all-encompassing, and hugely costly business of actually preparing a crusade. The efforts of many thousands of men and women, who left their lands and families in Western Europe, and marched off to a highly uncertain future in the Holy Land and elsewhere have never been sufficiently understood. Their actions raise a host of compelling questions about the nature of medieval society.How to Plan a Crusade is remarkably illuminating on the diplomacy, communications, propaganda, use of mass media, medical care, equipment, voyages, money, weapons, wills, ransoms, animals, and the power of prayer during this dynamic era. It brings to life an extraordinary period of history in a new and surprising way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681778952
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Christopher Tyerman is Professor of the History of the Crusades at the University of Oxford; 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 in British publishing, 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.

Editorial Reviews

His deeply researched study is dedicated to exploring the relationship between human reason and religious war in all its aspects—justification, propaganda, recruitment, finance, logistics—to show us how 'reason made religious war possible.'

The London Review of Books

Serious and scholarly, the synthesis of decades of work on difficult, fragmented sources. An impressive and lively book, laced with wry asides and enough surprising details to pique the general reader.

Jessie Childs - The Guardian

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 - The Mail on Sunday (UK)

Mining details on logistics 800 years ago is Tyerman's forte, and he throws them on to the page like chaff from a trebuchet. It is comprehensive, laying down a great skein of fact where there was only supposition (much of it false). And, as the West gears up for the crusade against Islamic State, it is horribly timely.

The Times (London)

A quirky niche book that descends into obscure, even humdrum areas and makes them interesting. In the right hands, such a book can be a pleasure. This is the case with How to Plan a Crusade.

The New York Times Book Review

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

The Spectator (UK)

Tyerman explores the role of reason in medieval wars in this must-read book for history buffs.

NBC-2

A real achievement. Tyerman is a virtuoso with the English language. Filled to the brim with rich descriptions of the intricate planning and preparations that Europeans conducted before their Crusades. There are few scholars today who could match [Tyerman’s] breadth of knowledge regarding the Crusades. Tyerman energetically (and rightly) argues that medieval people were just as rational as modern people.

The New Criterion

One [of my favorite kinds of military history] is the quirky niche book that descends into obscure, even humdrum areas and makes them interesting. In the right hands, such a book can be a pleasure. This is the case with How to Plan a Crusade.

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas E. Ricks

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 - The Mail on Sunday

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

The Spectator

08/01/2017
Tyerman (God's War: A New History of the Crusades) looks at the logistical and planning activities of the Crusades, arguing that the wars were not irrational follies of religious peasants but rather carefully planned campaigns of moneyed individuals. He reframes his analysis of the events into five major areas, opening with the idea that the medieval period contains many examples of rationality. He then discusses the reasons Crusaders went to war and the culture which influenced the decision. Propaganda such as sermons, pamphlets, and assemblies also played a key role in the recruitment of warriors. Tyerman analyzes the standard types of recruits and shows that most were wealthy men, although some women attended. Additionally, he evaluates the finances of the campaigns, including budgets and troop pay before concluding the narrative with logistics surrounding supplies, ordinances, and campaign strategy. This detailed analysis assumes prior knowledge of both the Holy Land and Baltic Crusades as well as key figures. VERDICT An intriguing yet somewhat dry analysis of the Crusades. Recommended for scholars and medieval history aficionados.—Rebekah Kati, Durham, NC

Library Journal

2017-07-24
Overhauling the notion of the Medieval Ages as a time of zealotry and ignorance and examining the nuts and bolts of crusading.By concentrating on the "prosaic methods" of crusading rather than on the drama of the campaigns, as historians have traditionally done, Crusades expert Tyerman (History/Univ. of Oxford; The Debate on the Crusades 1099-2010, 2011, etc.) manages to demythologize the process. The outcomes of the Crusades—usually not good, and the author lays out the other numerous smaller ones in addition to the five big ones, from 1096 to the 1290s—do not concern Tyerman as much as the details of planning: recruitment, finance, logistics, supplies, etc. While the author concedes that the recruitment for these massive undertakings required the creation of a religious justification—e.g., "God wills it," and warriors were assured of a spiritual as well as material reward—the effective propaganda by religious leaders instilled in volunteers a sense of military urgency, even revenge. The missions served as holy wars to push back the threat to the order of Christendom in the Mediterranean especially. The Crusades also tightly involved the culture of the ruling aristocratic elite, expressed through the concept of chivalry, and required persuasion and propaganda by itinerant preachers at local assemblies and open-air sermons to sign up the necessary volunteers. Tyerman uses the examples of two such 12th-century preachers—Henry of Marcy and Gerald of Wales—to illustrate these methods. Much of Tyerman's work is a fascinating but dense catalog of logistics, including who actually went on crusade (the aristocrats and their retinue, as well as women), where the money came from, and what kind of massive supplies were needed, as delineated so beautifully in the Bayeux Tapestry. The narrative may leave lay readers not familiar with the specific Crusades bewildered, but overall, Tyerman provides a compelling, vivid sense of a lively, pragmatic, driven, and highly organized society. A fresh way to envision the Medieval era.

Kirkus Reviews

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