The Story of the Crusades is a book that was written in 1963 by Alfred Duggan. The book’s title tells you what the book is about, the Crusades. The book follows the Western Christian’s perspective on the 200 year event, from 1095 to 1291. It starts out setting up the plot (which most good books do), then sets up the plot, and keeps on setting up the plot. The book is very slow at the beginning, then slowly starts to move but not fast enough. If I were rating this book on how exciting it was, I would not forget to count the number of times I almost fell asleep trying to read it. But the Crusades have always interested me, so I couldn’t give up on the book,The book covers all of the crusades, but it also covers all of the down time between the crusades, which is not interesting to read. I am sure it is very important to know about, but a book should be fun also, considering its written as a story, and not as the Bible. There were interesting parts though. Especially During the 3rd crusade, I never learned about the Muslim assassins who played a big part. Also I found it interesting to read more information about King Richard who was kidnapped by The Duke of Austria.Another interesting part of the book was the attitude the author took on the First Crusade. He named the Chapter “The Great Lords Ride Out”. Mr. Duggan portrays the first crusade a lot different than I have been taught in the past. The way I’ve been taught about the Crusades was rather basic compared to the amount of information in the book. There was a lot more to the battle and religion so says Mr. Duggan. For exampleThe Greeks couldn’t understand the motives of the Crusaders. The Greeks thought the Crusaders should have deceived Jerusalem’s holder, because war was haste, and unneeded to achieve victory. Its amazing how much morals can change from one tribe to another. Just like Des Moines saying War is good,...
