Customer Rating: 
Summary: Incredibly gripping military history
Comment: This is an excellent piece of very readable military history covering a period often if not universally overlooked in the education of most people.
The author makes excellent uses of the sources available to him and lets the primary sources speak using their own voice whenever possible. This makes for a very reliable and well constructed piece of historical writing. His style is flowing and interesting and he refrains, mercifully, from dwelling too much on the gruesome details that abound in the historical record of the period.
I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in an overview of the battles between Europe and an ascendant Ottoman empire at the hight of its powers in general or interested in a very detailed account of the absolutely fascinating siege of Malta. Its coverage of the battle of Lepanto is less well done but still competent. A great read.
Finally, the narrator in the audio version of the book is brilliant.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Essential background
Comment: I am working on a dissertation that investigates the founding of the Turkish Republic, the resolution of a trauma that began 350 years earlier. Crowley does an incredible job of portraying events through the eyes of the combatants at all levels. Yes, I intend to cite this work in my own work.
Well done.
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Summary: Lepanto and the Modern World
Comment: This is a great work though its conclusion misses the most important point of all: the road from Malta to Lepanto marked the end of the last Muslim superpower. After 900 years, the business model, if you like, was obsolete. There were some failed attempts at recovery, notably the second siege of Vienna in 1680. But, after Lepanto, the Ottomans were on their way to becoming what Nicholas I in 1853 called "the sick man of Europe" and to setting the preconditions for the First World War.
The size of the power vacuum Lepanto created was truly stunning and ripped through the first half of the twentieth century like a scythe.
Lepanto did the unthinkable to Islam. It cut off the road to technological, economic, and territorial domination. Europe spent the next century and a half sorting itself out, violently for the most part, but with relatively little to worry about from the once mighty and ever expanding Islamic empires to its east and south.
Europe exploited the new world without the worries of Charles V or Philip II that the back door in the Mediterranean was open.
That freedom to exploit -- and exploit the Europeans did -- also gave us the advanced democracies of the U.S. and Canada. It also opened the way to Western domination of the sea lanes to India and China, with consequences that reshape our world daily.
One of the most disturbing consequences of Lepanto is the seething resentment of those whose religious conceit leads them to believe that the world must be Muslim and who, but for Lepanto, are powerless to effect their goals. From them we got 9/11. And more to come.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and well-written piece
Comment: During the middle of the sixteenth century, the Mediterranean Sea was the prime battlefield upon which the Ottoman and Hapsburg Empires dueled. Starting in 1521 with the Ottoman attack and capture of the island of Rhodes, the two empires fought a seesaw battle across the sea, with the Muslims relentlessly pushing the Christians back until the battle reached the center of the Mediterranean. In 1565, the Ottomans launched a massive invasion of the island of Malta, believing that an easy victory awaited them. But, after a grueling battle that culminated in a humiliating defeat, the Muslim advance across the sea was finally checked. And, with the historic Battle of Lepanto, the Turks suffered a naval setback from which they never recovered.
This is the story of the titanic contest that, perhaps more than any other event, decided whether or not Europe would successful resist Muslim conquest.
Overall, I must say that I really enjoyed this book. The author did an excellent job of taking the history of what happened, and turning it into an interesting read. Indeed, I found the author's story of the fall of the fort of St. Elmo on Malta to be so moving that it actually chocked me up. That's very unusual for a work of non-fiction.
So, let me just say that if you are interested in history, you will enjoy this fascinating and well-written piece. I do not hesitate to give it my highest recommendations!
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Summary: Empires of the Sea
Comment: This was an exceptional book of history. I found myself sitting up well past midnight in order to reach the end of a major section. Gripping and extremely informative. I would recommend it with enthusiasm. Two other excellent books helped lay a groundwork for my appreciation of this work. Norwich's 3 volume Byzantium is an exceptional piece of work. When I reached the end, I was wishing for a fourth volume. Short of that, Mansel's excellent Constantinople picks up where Norwich leaves off and completes the history through the end of the Ottoman empire. For anyone wishing to have a sweeping sense of the important history of the eastern Mediterranean, I can recommend all these volumes with gusto.
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