Book Description
In 1095 the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I appealed to the Christian states of western Europe for help against the Turks who had swept across the Empire after the disastrous Byzantine defeat at Manzikert in 1071. This book is about the First Crusade that followed, and saw several armies of ‘armed pilgrims’ march across Europe to the Holy Land. They were unleashed on a divided and fragmented Islamic world and won a series of apparently miraculous victories, capturing the Holy City of Jerusalem itself. The success of the First Crusade was never to be repeated, however, and triggered two centuries of bitter warfare, the repercussions of which are still felt today.
Customer Reviews:
Honest book, very bad illustrations.......2007-02-11
Being very familliar with the many previous books by David Nicolle I was a little bit apprehensive beginning to read this one, because of his well known anti-Christian and pro-Muslim bias present in many of his older works. Well, all in all I was favorably surprised, because there is a clear effort of objectivity from his part on this still hotly debated topic. This is a very honest overview of the First Crusade, although, by necessity, quite short (Osprey Campaigns series are alway only 96 pages long). Certainly one can be a little surprised by the frequency with which author names the Crusaders army "a horde", and qualifies their commitment as "fanatism" and "hysterical religious intoxication". But I expected much worse.
Maps are very well done - this is a strong point in all David Nicolle books.
The really BAD point are the colour plates, the trademark of Osprey series - in this book they are simply horrible. Very vague, gray, without details usually present in most of the Osprey titles, with the faces of people almost fading. All in all these plates by Christa Hook belong more in a modern art museum than in a military history book.
Nevertheless it is still a honest book.
Excellent overview, very detailed.......2004-04-28
This is a good overview of the first Crusade and is well put together for reference purposes.
The book discusses the various aspects of the Crusades, such as reasons for its start, who were the participants and descriptions of the political climate at that time in both Europe and the Middle East. There are some very good descriptions of the structure of the Arab and Turk tribes and their internal construction and conflicts as well as the background of the European forces.
There are some very detailed descriptions of the key battles of the Crusades, how the troops on each side were composed, their strategies, some discussion on troop readiness, extenuating circumstances and influences, both real and perceived, as to why each battle was a success or failure. This book deals in factual history and is not overly romanticized or constructed.
The book contains some well researched material, with an excellent bibliography, a chronology table and is indexed for quick reference.
Outstanding features are the maps (by The Map Studio) showing not only the areas discussed, but also the military maps outlining the key battles of the first Crusade. They show topographical information, use military symbols for the troops and divisions and discuss military strategies and deployments.
Also worth mentioning are the many photos and graphics that grace every page of this book. The illustrations, done for the most part by Christa Hook, give a pictorial idea of the key players, some battle scenes and some impressions of how this may have appeared. Based on research of that era, the players come alive, dressed in their historical clothing, weapons, and gives us a visual impression of how the event may have looked.
The photos, most taken by the author himself, give you an idea of what some of these areas looked like when he took many of them in the 70's, and also includes art and architecture of the period. Many of these photos show places that are in areas where we can not travel today and provides a good window into the culture and places of the time.
This is a good reference book for students looking to do research on the subject as well as a good first book for those wanting to make themselves familiar with the First Crusade. While I have recommended it for grades as low as the 8th, this is easily a book grownups with no background on the Crusades can pick up and enjoy. medievalcrusadesbabe
On Track and Focused.......2003-11-23
Compared to Dr. David Nicolle's earlier volumes for Osprey, which while scholarly written have tended to digress on esoteric archaeological issues, his volume on the First Crusade is on track and focused. Dr. Nicolle's summary of the amazing First Crusade is enhanced by the structure provided by J. France's Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade (1994). Dr. Nicolle is also wary of earlier narratives of the Crusades that slighted the role of the Byzantines and provided minimal perspective from the Turkish and Fatimid points of view; indeed, this summary is notable for its consistent attention to historical balance (some readers may feel that the Crusaders themselves get overly short shrift).
The First Crusade begins with a 6-page section on the origins of the campaign and a detailed chronology for the years 1095-1099. As Nicolle sees it, the First Crusade was primarily in response to the weakness of the Byzantine Empire after the disaster at Manzikert in 1071 - theories that the Crusades could have also been motivated by domestic or religious factors in Europe are not seriously entertained. The sections on opposing leaders, opposing armies and opposing plans is adequate for a volume of this size, but the lack of any attempt to construct at least a bare-bones order of battle for the Crusaders is annoying (others have tried). The centerpieces of the volume are the three 3-D "Birds Eye View" maps (the Battle of Dorylaeum, the Siege of Antioch, and the seizure of Jerusalem) and the three-color battle scenes (the Battle of Dorylaeum, the Battle outside Antioch and the Massacre in Jerusalem). The subjects of these color maps and illustrations are well chosen and convey some of the vital highlights in the campaign. There are also five 2-D color maps: the Christian and Islamic Worlds in 1095, the Crusaders' routes to Constantinople, Operations in Anatolia, campaigns in Syria and Palestine, and the Battle of Ascalon. The author also provides a decent bibliography and a section on touring the battlefields today.
Dr. Nicolle's campaign narrative is 57 pages long and covers the Crusader's operations from Constantinople to the Battle of Ascalon, a period of about 28 months. As usual, Dr. Nicolle is generally effective in detailing the facts behind a historical incident, but he is unable to instill much drama or passion into a campaign that was clearly driven by intangible factors of willpower and zeal. Indeed, on the objective level, the First Crusade should have failed due to poor logistics, poor knowledge of local conditions and insufficient military advantages over the indigenous forces. One puzzling omission is why Dr. Nicolle rarely makes references to troop strengths or casualties in this account; for example, many accounts estimate that the Crusaders suffered about 4,000 casualties at the Battle of Dorylaeum - but why is that omitted here? Without much reference to numbers (even estimates), the reader may not realize that the Crusaders lost about 70% of their troops in the course of these 28 months, or that they were usually outnumbered 3-1 or worse.
Perhaps Dr. Nicolle's most interesting observations for modern readers is the author's assessment that the Crusades were initially met by apathy in the Arab world, which goes a long way toward explaining how such a poorly-planned military expedition could pierce so deeply into a sea of enemies. Nicolle notes that, "it took a long time to motivate a counter-jihad to mirror the enthusiasm of the Crusade," and that for several years after the end of the First Crusade, the Crusader conquests were held by only a handful of professional troops. It is clearly amazing that neither the Turks nor Fatimids were able to annihilate such a tiny European force in their midst, and a force that did not receive substantial reinforcement for more than a decade. It is interesting to contrast this protracted Arab apathy then, with today's Islamic fundamentalist portrayal of the Crusades as such a cathartic event. Perhaps it might be useful for modern Islamic societies to remember that foreigners were only able to intervene militarily because of inter-Arab divisions (even in 1097, the Sunni-Shia split was an open wound) and foolish leadership. In military terms, the Crusades should have been a non-event; the Fatimid navy dominated the eastern Mediterranean and the Seljuk Turks dominated central Turkey with a large, powerful army. However the greatest result of the Crusades, as noted by Nicolle, was a Sunni Muslim revival that "resulted in a hardening of attitudes to non-Muslims" and "less tolerance of Shi'a Muslims". We are still feeling the results of this revival to this day.
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Illusory Consensus: Bolingbroke and the Polemical Response to Walpole, 1730-1737
Alexander Pettit
Manufacturer: University of Delaware Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0874135923 |
Customer Reviews:
brilliant historiography.......1999-08-27
This book brings alive a period of British history in which pamphlet wars--not unusual in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century London--are used by the author to elucidate how Tories and Whigs work to undermine each other. I recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in British history, English literature, politics, and culture. The author knows how to write a sentence, but more important, he knows how to write a thrilling book that goes beyond academic interest and would make anyone who is interested in history enjoy it.
Customer Reviews:
Relatively poor.......2006-05-20
In his History of Western Philosophy, Russell makes the progression of thousands of years of the biggest thinkers in the West read like a suspense thriller. I was hoping he could do the same with Einstein's relativity.
No such luck. Though he writes this especially for the lay person, Russell often seems to lose patience with his intended audience, becoming frustrated at them for not having the education to "get" what he's saying but then saying it anyway. Which, to me, is a sign that he became disenchanted with the premise of the book as he plowed through it, which to me is a failure, which to me suggests that maybe Russell didn't have such a masterful grasp on these complex ideas yet himself. He only wrote the book in 1925, when the whole world was still fumbling around trying to figure out what Einstein had done (we still are).
If you are a non-physicist like me and really want to understand one of the human race's most elegant and significant concepts, I recommend looking elsewhere. Lewis Epstein's _Relativity Visualized_ might be a good place to start.
ABZ of Relativity.......2006-04-10
I think this book can justifiably be called ABZ of relativity. The author sincerely tries to tell us about relativity by building up from basic elements, but at the point it gets to the stuff that is supposed be really interesting, it becomes unintelligible for the less gifted. He gives three pages to tell us about the difference between mass and weight, but the central concept of "interval" is used for some pages before being poorly defined and explained. I am positively sure he understands relativity and all, and I am sure those definitions are correct in the strictest sense, however they didn't help a beginner, at least in this case. Having said this though, this book is still a very nice read and could be read even if only for its strange humor and wisecracks.
A Philosopher who truly understands relativity.......2004-07-14
Bertrand Russel was an excellent writer, and one of the few philosophers who truly understood relativity. This book is also a classic. However, the book attempts to explain relativity to the layman using "text" only. The book is not mathematical, and it contains very few graphs or diagrams. This is not the best approach to explaining relativity. Good graphs/diagrams/images can to a certain extent replace equations. There are many modern introductory books and multimedia presentations that does a better at job at introducing relativity.
I recommend this book as a "classic", but not as an introduction to relativity for the non-physicist.
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Maine Atlantic Salmon: A National Treasure
Ed Baum
Manufacturer: Atlantic Salmon Unlimited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0966049691 |
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book!.......1998-10-30
This is a great book covering everything including the history, ecology, biology, and more of Altlantic Salmon. This book has impressive photographs, artwork, and text; it is interesting and informative for everyone. The author is one of the most respected and knowledgeable and experienced scientists in the field.
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Atlantic salmon fishing in Maine
Paul C Rzasa
Manufacturer: Little Guy Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0006SC1ZS |
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Atlantic Salmon in Maine
Committee on Atlantic Salmon in Maine , and
National Research Council
Manufacturer: National Academies Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0309091357 |
Product Description
Covers: The Dennys River, Procedures in salmon fishing, Fishing in Canada, Potpourri, plus much more.
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Penobscot River Renaissance: Restoring America's Premier Atlantic Salmon Fishery
James E. Butler
Manufacturer: Down East Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0892723254 |
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To Save a River
Scott Dickerson , and
Dennis C. Shultz
Manufacturer: Aperture
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0893819956
Release Date: 2005-06-15 |
Book Description
To Save a River magnificently documents the natural history and preservation of Maine's Ducktrap River. Through eighty spectacular images, beautifully reproduced in tritone, environmental photographer Dennis C. Shultz captures the pristine glory of one of only eight remaining rivers in the United States that are home to wild Atlantic salmon populations. Shultz's photographs, made throughout the seasons over a three-year period, offer readers a unique perspective of the river and serve to dramatize the results of ongoing conservation efforts by the Ducktrap Coalition. In just seven years, the Coalition has conserved eighty-one percent of the land along the river, ensuring not only the survival of the salmon population but also the preservation of their watershed.
In his accompanying essay, Scott Dickerson, Executive Director of the Coastal Mountains Land Trust, which oversees the Ducktrap Coalition, describes the innovative process through which major portions of the 36-square-mile Ducktrap watershed have been preserved. His fascinating text illuminates the success of this conservation program in terms of its long-term benefits to the Atlantic salmon and to the region's fragile ecosystem as a whole.
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Trout and Salmon Fishing in Northern New England: A Guide to Selected Waters in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts
Al Raychard
Manufacturer: North Country Pr
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0896210685 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from E, published by Earth Action Network, Inc. on November 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1091 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the supplier: Conflicts have been brewing over the practice of farming Atlantic Salmon in northern New England. Farmed fish, which may be genetically diluted from their wild and endangered counterparts, occasionally are released from farms in storms. Additional problems occur with predators and disease. Environmentalists feel that the captive fish may interbreed with wild fish and weaken the species.
Citation Details
Title: Wild and Free.(Atlantic Salmon farming in Maine)
Author: Jim Motavalli
Publication:
E (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 1998
Publisher: Earth Action Network, Inc.
Volume: 9
Issue: 6
Page: 21(1)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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