Kenneth Meyer Setton (1914–1995)

It’s rare that I read non-fiction books and actually enjoy them lately (or National Geographic magazines for that matter), but this book balanced the historical content with the authors’ exploration of the current medieval settings quite well. At times the personalized tone made it feel more like a travel memoir for history geeks than an actual historical tome, but this technique gives the reader a bit of a mental break from the topic. Having a more casual take on the subject actually works quite well in this case, since it still presents the historical facts within proper context but it allows the reader not to get stuck on too much technical detail or overweighty academic jargon (a serious issue with a lot of historical writers and academic historians). Clearly the book is a bit dated (references to the Soviet Union were quite amusing), but it still stands well within the oeuvre of National Geographic writing.

The book as a whole could have done with some improvement in terms of their maps - there were a few times when I found myself wanting a quick reference between medieval places names and modern locales, and the few maps that were included had backwards colouring (blue land, white ocean) - but the rest of the visual material worked quite well, I thought. Photos were matched carefully to the main text and included their own captions to further explain topics, and the painted images added a lot of much-needed visual stimulation. Most books on this topic tend to use live recreations, but I find that concept a bit trite, since obviously we don’t have photos from the Middle Ages and trying to recreate scenes just looks like glorified cosplay - which is great, but has no place in non-fiction books.… (mere)