Crowley’s popular histories—this is his fourth—pivot around power politics of the Mediterranean Sea, circa 1453 (2005). Venice is the player this lively narrative focuses on, specifically during the three centuries, from 1200 to 1500, in which it was at the apex of its sway over maritime trade. Accenting the city-state’s mercantile spirit, Crowley supports his narrative of the period’s numerous naval wars with explanations of the commerce they were fought to command. Acquiring an imperial archipelago in the process of serving as spice broker between Europe and Asia, Venice reached around Greece to Constantinople and as far as southern Russia. Anchored by fortresses, linked by galleys, Venice’s commercial empire faced challenges from Mongols, Genoa, and Ottoman Turks, and the diplomatic and military means by which Venice addressed those threats provide the most vivid passages and personalities in Crowley’s account. Had Vittorio Pisano not defeated Genoa in 1380, Venice might not be the tourist attraction of today. A deft writer, Crowley renders the Venetian part in late medieval times interesting indeed to history buffs

When the heavily manned fleet of the Ottoman Empire met the ships of a fragile coalition of Christian European states in 1571, the waters off the coast of Greece, they say, "ran red with blood." It was a victory of the West--the first major victory of Europeans against the Ottoman Empire. In this compelling piece of narrative history, Niccolò Capponi describes the underlying clash of cultures and takes a fresh look at the bloody struggle between oared fighting galleys and determined men of faith. As a description of the age-old conflict between Christianity and Islam, it is a story which resonates today.

John Patrick Douglas Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1904–1976) was a Scottish historian and writer noted for his biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and other works on Islamic history. He was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. He then became a journalist and writer.