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The Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade
Oct 19, 2024 3:17 PM

Author:Jonathan Phillips

The Fourth Crusade

In April 1204, the armies of Western Christendom wrote another bloodstained chapter in the history of holy war. Two years earlier, aflame with religious zeal, the Fourth Crusade set out to free Jerusalem from the grip of Islam. But after a dramatic series of events, the crusaders turned their weapons against the Christian city of Constantinople, the heart of the Byzantine Empire and the greatest metropolis in the known world.

The crusaders spared no one in their savagery: they murdered and raped old and young - they desecrated churches, plundered treasuries and much of the city was put to the torch. Some contemporaries were delighted: God had approved this punishment of the effeminate, treacherous Greeks; others expressed shock and disgust at this perversion of the crusading ideal. History has judged this as the crusade that went wrong.

In this remarkable new assessment of the Fourth Crusade, Jonathan Phillips follows the fortunes of the leading players and explores the conflicting motives that drove the expedition to commit the most infamous massacre of the crusading movement.

Reviews

Enthralling...Nobody can read it without acquiring a better understanding of the Middle Ages and the medieval mind.

—— Allan Massie , Literary Review

Persuasively reconstructs the imaginative world of the thirteenth century.

—— John Adamson , Sunday Telegraph

By far the best book I have read on the Fourth Crusade...learned, comprehensive...well-written...exciting.

—— Norman F. Cantor

Stunning

—— Financial Times

Imagine Homeland crossed with Skins, and you will get some idea of what a gripping, revelatory book this is. Unputdownable

—— Tom Holland

One of the most compelling descriptions of radical political immersion of recent times

—— Mail on Sunday

A horrifying reflection on modern Britain

—— Telegraph

What a life, what a compelling storyteller. In parts you’ll need to remind yourself that what reads like an engrossing, fast-paced, action-packed thriller, a piece of fiction, is in fact a real-life account

—— The Indian Express

Please read Radical by the phenomenal Maajid Nawaz. It's a fantastic read! Nawaz is emerging as the most powerful voice in battling the ideas that inspire terrorists.

—— Joel Kinnaman

Offering a deeply personal yet universal exploration of what he has learned on his four-decade pilgrimage across cultures and religious traditions, Ram Dass shares powerful lessons on love...

—— Spiritual Media Blog

It is a compelling text, chock full of history, teaching, and truth.

—— New Age Retailer

There is no one better than Ram Dass to transmit the essence of "Eastern" religion and philosophy to Westerners. He has made the journey and from the depth of his Joy and Wisdom he shares with us the journey of so many great Beings.

—— Krishna Das, Kirtan Wala

Read this delicious, ecstatic journey and be awakened, be pulled body and soul into the heart of love.

—— Jack Kornfeld, author of A Path with Heart

If the West even approaches enlightenment in the 21st Century, there's no way to overestimate the role of Ram Dass in making it happen. He planted seeds that turned into a million trees; if and when they blossom, they will exude the fragrance of his teaching forever.

—— Marianne Williamson, author of The Age of Miracles

His deeply personal and profound process of inner transformation--through his guru's "fierce grace" and a life of love and service--is told with characteristic candor and humor. Rich with teaching stories, Be Love Now is an invitation to open our hearts.

—— Yoga International

A gift of love from the man who introduced me to the idea of higher consciousness and became one of my greatest teachers.

—— Dr. Wayne Dyer

An utterly absorbing read... An elegiac meditation on life, death, family and mortality. Beautiful

—— Wanderlust

Thubron is an impressive prose stylist..he writes with great elegiac precision

—— Times Literary Supplement

It's a pleasure to follow Colin Thubron's hesitant pilgrimage ... the last of the great post-war British travel writers

—— Waterstone's Books Quarterly

Amid the desolation there is a beauty that comes not only from the things that Thubron chooses to describe but from the way in which he describes them

—— Tablet

What Thubron provides in his inimitable way is an account of both fellow pilgrimsand himself

—— Geographical

Wonderfully poetic tale

—— Compass

Colin Thurbron's ode to a mystical mountain in Tibet... Not to be missed

—— Daily Telegraph

This latest travelogue confirms Colin Thubron as one of the greatest contemporary travel writers

—— Time Out

I am haunted by its spare simplicity and beauty

—— Simon Winchester , Daily Telegraph, summer reading

His measures prose matches the region's stark beauty. Refreshing

—— Financial Times

haunting and profound

—— Sunday Express Magazine

This pure artist of the voyage looks back backwards and within, to his late mother and his childhood, as well as up to the Himalayan peaks and peoples that he sumptuously evokes

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent, Books of the Year

[An] elegiac account of high-altitude piety...he's still one of the best in the business

—— Helen Davies , Sunday Times, Books of the Year

An absolutely terrific book. Thubron has perfect pitch. He uses the minimum of words to maximum effect. His descriptions are fresh and acute and he can convey atmosphere and emotion on the head of a pin. The journey to Mount Kailash is enthralling and he keeps the reader right beside him every inch of the way

—— Michael Palin , Observer, Books of the Year

Punchy, evocative... It is a dangerous journey up to 18,000ft, where Thubron, who is mourning his mother, is hit by altitude sickness

—— Tom Chesshyre , The Times

Abook which beautifully describes one man's experience of loss and familial love

—— Joanna Kavenna , Guardian

[Thubron] skilfully balances his poetic descriptions of the land and its subtle, shifting colours with human stuff - observations of his fellow travellers, encounters and personal anecdotes, snippets of history and rather interesting accounts of Tantric Buddhism, with its swirling pantheon of blue-faced demons, bodhisattvas, gods and goddesses... Thubron has recently buried his last living relative and his grieving gives depth and weight to his meditations on Tibetan Buddhism

—— Angus Clarke , The Times

This is a superb book from a writer who over his lifetime has shown himself to be our finest modern chronicler of Asia

—— Telegraph

The keenest-eyed, least self-absorbed, of literary travellers, Colin Thubron writes with a pin-point elegance and economy that directs your gaze to a place and its people, rather than to the author's foibles... His tales of seekers, refugees and mystics richly sketch the background of Tibetan history and Buddhist belief. Above all, his lean and supple prose draws meaning and moment from every encounter. "To the pilgrims, there are no mute stones" - and not to their ultra-observant companion

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

His book is interspersed with poignant passages about his late parents and sister, who died in an avalanche when he was 23. Thubron also reveals some cultural surprises.

—— Simon Shaw , Daily Mail

Making a lyrical hymn out of travel writing, Thubron's evocative pilgrimage is typically poised yet, triggered by the death of his mother, also unusually personal

—— Sunday Telegraph

Thubron's writing is as spectacular as his surroundings so he therefore makes you feel as though you are treading the path with him

—— Charlotte Vowden , Daily Express

[Thubron] doesn't just walk into the higher reaches of the Himalyas but explores his own reaches of eternity as well as the more outer regions of Buddhism and Hinduism

—— The Irish Times

Deploying a poetic blend of travel and memoir, Thubron uses Buddhism to inform reflections on the cycles of life and the meaning of suffering... it is an elegy for everything that makes us human

—— Sara Wheeler , Guardian

Reflections of the wheel of life are sensitively handled and the writing is as beautiful as ever

—— Anthony Sattin , Sunday Times

A new Travel Thubron is always to be savoured, but there was something valedictory and elegiac about this

—— Gavin Francis , Scotland on Sunday, Books of the Year
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