Customer Reviews

History Lite - By: millie1512, 18 Dec 2005
This is a book that claims to look at one of the turning pointsin European history, the capture of Constantinople by the Turksin 1453 & the end of the Byzantine Empire, through the eyes of its protagonists.

That it does, but only to a very limited point. A dozen or so characters appear from a Greek monk opposed to the church reunion with Rome, to a Serbian captain forced to fight as part of the Turkish armies. But, instead of going into their beliefs & their culturein any great depth, the characters more or less serve as props for what amounts to an abridged narrative of the siege & the key facts & dates instead.

Worse, the book tells you next to nothing about what a city that was built to hold half a million inhabitants but housed 50,000 at its fall must have been like. We find out that there were lots of churches, the walls were high, lots of Italians lived therein their own quarter, and, er...that's it!

If you are already familiar with Byzantine history, this book will add next to nothing on top of what you already know. And if you do want to buy a book that really paints a picture around the fall of Constantinople, I'd recommend Roger Crowley's excellent "The Last Great Siege" instead.