MARSHALL W. BALDWIN (Ed.). A History of the Crusades. Vol. I: The First Hundred Years. Pp. xxvi, 694. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1955. $12.00

• Author: J.A. Raftis
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625630400175
• Subject Matter: Articles

190

illiterate

brides

were

12.2

per

cent;

there

are

45.5

radio

sets

for

every

100

northern

Italian

families,

but

only

21.4

for

every

100

families

in

Sicily

and

Sardinia.

Ca-

ranti’s

data

come-mostly

from

the

official

figures

of

the

Istituto

Centrale

di

Sta-

tistica

and

from

the

polls

of

the

Istituto

Doxa,

an

Italian

equivalent

of

Gallup.

The

following

sample

will

point

out

the

interest

of

these

polls:

only

two

thirds

of

those

who

were

asked

whether

commu-

nism

was

incompatible

with

Catholicism

gave

an

affirmative

answer.

At

the

bargain

price

of

roughly

thirty

cents,

the

book

is

a

mine

of

information,

and

it

should

be

on

the

desk

of

every

stu-

dent

of

Italian

politics.

ROBERT

SABATINO

LOPEZ

Yale

University

MARSHALL

W.

BALDWIN

(Ed.).

A

His-

tory

of

the

Crusades.

Vol.

I:

The

First

Hundred

Years.

Pp.

xxvi,

694.

Phila-

delphia :

University

of

Pennsylvania

Press,

1955.

$12.00.

While

the

episodes

of

the

Crusades

will

probably

never

be

excelled

for

story-book

thrills

from

real

history,

there

is

today

un-

questionably

a

greater

appeal

to

the

stu-

dent

of

social

history

in

the

recollection

of

this

medieval

epic.

Conscious

of

the

threatening

alliance

of

Eurasians

under

a

political

ideology

alien

to

the

Western

world,

the

American

reader

will

quicken

to

the

more

recently

established

fact

that

the

Crusades

were

not

essentially

the

ro-

mantic

episodes

of

knights

errant,

but

rather

the

key

to

a

clash

of

two

civiliza-

tions

over

four

centuries

upon

a

frontier

ranging

from

Portugal

to

the

Euphrates,

and

from

Cairo

to

the

Baltic

Sea.

A

gen-

eration

of

patient

research

into

Arabian

and

Byzantine,

as

well

as

more

traditional

Western

sources,

has

now

uncovered

the

pattern

of

ebb

and

flow

throughout

this

vast

theatre

of

operations.

This

is

a

splendid

volume,

enlisting

as

it

does

all

the

equipment

of

modem

schol-

arship

to

put

this

new

history

at

our

dis-

posal.

Fourteen

maps

conveniently

located

throughout

the

text,

and

the

normalization

of

spelling

from

one-half

dozen

languages,

more

than

compensate

for

the

increased

cost.

The

projected

five

volumes

are

all

to

be

constructed,

like

the familiar

Cam-

bridge

histories,

from

the

contribution

of

various

chapters

by

specialists.

Of

the

fifteen

contributors

to

this

first

volume,

almost

one-half

are

from

abroad,

includ-

ing

such

names

as

the

famous

Byzantine

scholar,

Steven

Runciman

of

London,

Eng-

land.

Despite

the

co-operative

structure,

the

single

theme

has

given

remarkable

unity

and

continuity

to

an

immense

cov-

erage

of

detail

and

incident.

This

is

largely

due

to

the

clarity

with

which

the

stage

is

set

for

the

Crusades

in

the

first

one-half

dozen

chapters

of

this

volume.

The

pat-

tern

of

success

or

failure

is

already

seen

in

the

cycles

of

religious

fanaticism,

mili-

tary

oligarchy,

and

stagnation

among

the

Mohammedans;

in

the

clash

of

feudal

am-

bitions

in

the

Western

ranks;

in

the

desire

of

Eastern

Christians

to

maintain

their

ancient

traditions

and

liberties

before

the

Christian

foreigner

as

well

as

the

old

Moslem

neighbor.

And

yet

for

this

reader

the

most

fascinating

quality

of

the

volume

is

the

manner

in

which

individuals

and

per-

sonalities

break

through

the

familiar

pat-

terns

at

every

stage;

it

is

still

the

stirring

story

of

those

least

subtle

of

men,

the

re-

ligious

enthusiast

and

the

professional

war-

rior,

while

the

length

of

the

volume

makes

it

possible

to

bring

out

the

full

color

of

the

times,

as

with

the

Assassin

sect

or

the

People’s

Crusade.

Professor

Baldwin

and

his

associates

are

to

be

congratulated

for

a

work

that

will

undoubtedly

become

a

classic

in

its

field.

J.

A.

RAFTIS

Pontifical

Institute

of

Mediaeval

Studies

Toronto,

Canada

NAPHTALI

LEWIS

and

MEYER

REINHOLD

(Eds.).

Roman

Civilization.

Vol.

I:

The

Republic;

Vol.

II:

The

Empire.

Pp.

ix,

544;

viii,

652.

New

York: Co-

lumbia

University

Press,

1951,

1955.

$12.00.

This

useful

addition

to

a

notable

series

of

source

translations

is

well

organized

and

carefully

thought

out.

The

excerpts

are

arranged

under

topics,

some

373

altogether,

numbered

consecutively

for

each

volume.

These

topics

may

be

broad-for

example,

No.

66

in

Vol.

II,

&dquo;Freedmen&dquo;-or

special-

ized-for

example,

the

last

topic

in

Vol.

I,