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Reviews
The Inquisitors: The Story of the Grand Inquisitors of the Spanish Inquisition by John Edwards
raamatutevahel's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
saj_81's review against another edition
3.0
A whole book on the Spanish inquisition and not a single Monty Python joke! The author must be breaking some kind of rule...?
Seriously though, after reading this I realised how ignorant I had previously been about the inquisition. The details and nuances, especially the Jewish aspect, were all news to me. Very often the inquisition is just a word used by people who want to criticise something or other. This book shows how the inquisition was used as a power tool by the government and reminds the reader how very unique the political situation in Europe was in the 1500s (with several small sovereign nations etc. struggling for survival and power).
The book is informative and a quick read with some interesting 16th century illustrations. The writer, however, has chosen a no-nonsense approach which unfortunately makes the text a bit dry and distant to the human experience. A few life stories and contemporary accounts would have made the book more lively, instead of just steadily going from one event to the next.
Seriously though, after reading this I realised how ignorant I had previously been about the inquisition. The details and nuances, especially the Jewish aspect, were all news to me. Very often the inquisition is just a word used by people who want to criticise something or other. This book shows how the inquisition was used as a power tool by the government and reminds the reader how very unique the political situation in Europe was in the 1500s (with several small sovereign nations etc. struggling for survival and power).
The book is informative and a quick read with some interesting 16th century illustrations. The writer, however, has chosen a no-nonsense approach which unfortunately makes the text a bit dry and distant to the human experience. A few life stories and contemporary accounts would have made the book more lively, instead of just steadily going from one event to the next.
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