City of Fortune

November 7, 2011
From a few isolated islands in Italy during the Middle Ages, Venice grew to the world’s greatest sea power, a position it held for 500 years. British historian Crowley (Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World) points out that, lacking land for agriculture, and well-positioned for sailing at the head of the Adriatic Sea, Venetians concentrated on trading. Preoccupied with commerce, they ignored the violent religious disputes of the era, but had no objection to violence in pursuit of profit. By 1000 C.E. Venice was thriving thanks to trading privileges with Constantinople, the wealthy capital of the Byzantine Empire. Despite this favoritism, Venice took rapacious advantage of the Empire’s decline, prospering despite innumerable bloody conflicts with its equally “pushy, pragmatic, and ruthless” rival, Genoa, and the advancing Ottoman Turks. Readers searching for cultural insights should read John Julius Norwich or Fernand Braudel; Crowley has written a rousing, traditional account that emphasizes politics, war, and great men, ending in 1500, when the voyages of discovery shifted the balance of power to Western Europe. B&w illus.; maps.

November 15, 2011
The only seas Venice ruled were the Mediterranean and Black, but it dominated European trade from 1000 to 1500, an achievement that owes much to its citizens' energy and freedom but mostly to their willingness to fight. While mildly neglected compared to Britain and France, Venice receives a stirring account from British historian Crowley (Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World, 2008, etc.). The author concentrates on its golden years and the wars that made them possible, passing over its great but less-pugnacious cultural accomplishments. Isolated by Adriatic's lagoons, Venice escaped barbarian invasions that ended the Western Roman Empire. One of the few areas of Italy still ruled from Constantinople by the Byzantine Empire, it prospered throughout the Middle Ages. Despite its nominal subservience, Venice eagerly accepted an immense fee to build an massive fleet and transport the Crusaders who sacked Constantinople in 1204, after which it added many formerly Byzantine cities and islands to its growing trading empire. It continued to flourish despite competition from other Italian cities and encroachment from the steadily expanding Ottoman Empire. Between brutal naval wars with the Turks, it was happy to trade, a policy that outraged the Vatican and other Christian nations. After 1500, ships from Portugal, Spain, Britain and Holland began sailing across the Atlantic to America and around Africa to Asia, beginning Venice's decline. An action-packed political and military history that will remind readers of the Italian sea power that prevailed for centuries before Western European nations arrived on the scene.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 15, 2011
Crowley's popular historiesthis is his fourthpivot 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)