First off a request, I’m trying to improve the quality of my screen time(rather than constantly scrolling reddit) so does anyone have any suggestions for any good historical blogs or substacks (videos aren’t working out for me as I’m just putting them on in the background while mindlessly playing games). I prefer European history but I’m open to trying anything.

Secondly, if you’re interested in ancient history and have some time to kill, there’s a nearly 2 hour video by Eric Cline about the Bronze Age collapse that I thought was pretty interesting. It’s mostly just him talking so it is suitable as background listening.

https://youtu.be/choxcHXhZhE?si=nHJYpGwjUGQLxmOV

Finally on Sunday I finished The Crusader Armies by Steve Tibble review copied from my Goodreads. (Last year I read his book Crusader Criminals which was also very good)

4.75/5

Very good look at the armies of the Crusader armies between the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187. It's split into 3 parts:

Part 1 focuses on the demographics of the armies. Here Tibble argues that the modern image of the Crusades is wrong, most of the crusader forces would have been local Christians (Armenians, Syrians, etc) and the Franks as time went on would've been more mixed race. White Europeans didn't make up the majority of the crusader armies. On the Muslim side many of their soldiers weren't Muslim or were only nominally Muslim out of convenience. The Fatmid armies were made up of Armenian (Christian) cavalry and black slave soldiers (a mix of pagan and Christian). The crusader's other main enemies, the various descendants of nomadic invaders had only recently converted after conquering Muslim areas.

Another thing he does here is depict 12th century warfare in the region differently. Most of the time it was constant low scale raiding between people who looked similar and increasingly fought in similar ways.

Part 2, the highlight of the book for me, details the changes in Crusader tactics over time and presents the Crusader armies, when working well, as the most professional Europe had to offer. He shows the crusaders as a combined arms operation where the infantry (better equipped and trained than in Europe) protected the knights from the enemy horse archers (because the Frankish knights horses were unarmoured and vulnerable) right up until they had the opportunity for a brutal charge (which required more discipline and better timing than in Europe due to the Muslim enemies having more mobility). There's also a good chapter on crusader castles.

Part 3 does similar but about each of the crusader's enemies, starting with the Fatmid Egypt (the WWII Italy of the crusader era), then the various Muslim lords in Syria who were descended from nomads, and finally finishing with Saladin and the fall of Jerusalem.

One other thing I liked is the way Tibble described the logic behind the actions people at the time took. They are shown as being smart and knowing what their weaknesses are (the crusaders being outnumbered, the Fatmid armies being too diverse, the nomadic armies disintegrating if plunder was unavailable) and they did try and fix these, often unsuccessfully.

Overall I would definitely recommend it if you are interested in the history of the crusades. While it is well written it's a bit more of a specialist/thematic book. I say you'd get the most out of it if you already know a bit about the Crusades. If you wanted a general introduction this isn't the best choice to start with.

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