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A review by jsjammersmith
1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley
5.0
Read my full review at my site White Tower Musings: https://jsjammersmith.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/canon-fire-in-1453-and-the-obnoxious-quality-of-janissaries-in-assassins-creed/
When the reader is able to read about the siege of Constantinople and find some manner of sympathy, or at least understanding, with both sides of the conflict, then I believe it's fair to say the writer has accomplished something.
1453 was an amazing read because every page of this book was brimming with animated prose that made the real facts of the Ottoman and Byzantine conflict seem like more than just a retelling of facts. This was a true and functioning narrative that explained the significance of a largely medieval conflict. 1453 isn't just about an Ottoman conquest of a Byzantine defeat, it's about the last bastion of the classical world falling beneath the might of rising industry, and the shifting of influence of religion in the Middle East as Islam became more than just a political movement. Roger Crowley writes a story in which every facet of this long siege and eventual slaughter was something more.
Reading this book I felt like I was reading an incredible story with real implications for a contemporary reader and that's what great history should be. Crowley has achieved something incredible with this book, and as I contemplate the blood soaked into the stones of the ruins of the Hippodrome, or Orman's mighty gun shaking the earth beneath the earth, I'm left marveled at a story I knew already and the way in which it's been forever altered.
When the reader is able to read about the siege of Constantinople and find some manner of sympathy, or at least understanding, with both sides of the conflict, then I believe it's fair to say the writer has accomplished something.
1453 was an amazing read because every page of this book was brimming with animated prose that made the real facts of the Ottoman and Byzantine conflict seem like more than just a retelling of facts. This was a true and functioning narrative that explained the significance of a largely medieval conflict. 1453 isn't just about an Ottoman conquest of a Byzantine defeat, it's about the last bastion of the classical world falling beneath the might of rising industry, and the shifting of influence of religion in the Middle East as Islam became more than just a political movement. Roger Crowley writes a story in which every facet of this long siege and eventual slaughter was something more.
Reading this book I felt like I was reading an incredible story with real implications for a contemporary reader and that's what great history should be. Crowley has achieved something incredible with this book, and as I contemplate the blood soaked into the stones of the ruins of the Hippodrome, or Orman's mighty gun shaking the earth beneath the earth, I'm left marveled at a story I knew already and the way in which it's been forever altered.