David C. Douglas (1898–1982)

All I had really known about the Normans was that they were from Normandy, that they left castles all over the place in Europe, and that they conquered England in 1066. But there was a lot I didnn't know, such as, for example, the facts that, in addition to England, Norman invaders conquered and set up shop in Southern Italy (taking it from the Byzantine Empire) and Sicily (from the Saracens), all during the second half of the 11th century. The Norman leaders operated mostly independently of each other and sometimes took the time to fight wars against each other. In the conquering and subduing of new territories, they were as a rule savage, bloodthirsty, cruel and extremely acquisitive. But in the administering of their conquered land, they were generally relatively benign. Their politics helped restore the papacy to both political and religious authority after it had endured a very weak period, and they were instrumental both in gathering and leading the First Crusade and in causing the friction that led to the final break between Eastern and Western Christianity and brought about the eventual sacking of Constantinople by Western forces. There's more, but that, basically, is my report on the Normans. I found the information quite interesting, in a "fill in one more hole in my knowledge of Western history" kind of way. Douglas was, however (he died in 1982), a traditional, old school, academic historian, and his presentation here is pretty dry. This is not the sort of literary history writing that we've come to know and love more recently. There might be more entertaining accounts to be had on this subject by now, but still I'm glad I read this.… (mere)