Dan Jones
Viking Press, 448 pages
Dan Jones is a wonderful storyteller and historian. It’s not always clear which skill is foremost. He is perhaps most well known for his massive “The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens who Made England.” No surprise: He’s also a consultant for the History Channel, and his narrative style lends itself well to that task. This book explores the period of the Crusades from 1102-1314, through the slow rise and dramatic fall of the Knights of the Order of the Temple, otherwise known as the Templars. It’s a stunning story well told, certainly relevant for today. Jones amasses an enormous amount of details across cultures and religious traditions, language and beliefs. Occasionally one wishes for an editor to bring some focus. Where Jones succeeds is holding the thread of the Templars from a sincere monastic order supported by St. Bernard, called to defend The Holy Land, to a wealthy powerful and military skilled order. Inevitably their power brought them into conflict with kings, though various popes defended them. All in all, the period of the Crusades is a violent, sad story of religion run amuck, hopelessly entangled with the pursuit of wealth, power and land in the name of God. Though Saint Francis has a cameo appearance, Jones doesn’t spare the reader from knowing the gruesome ways Christians and Muslims warred with each other, mirroring the bloody violence and cruelty. The general reader must trust the author because the footnotes are too massive to explore. That raises a slight curiosity whether his point is to remind readers that holy war is no stranger to Christian history.
