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This is not strictly game related, but I thought given the subject matter and possible interest, I would post this here as some who frequent this area may not make it over to the Monastery. The book is: God's War. The over 1000 page work by Tyerman is slated to become the single volume monograph on the Crusades.
Call it a coincidence, but before MTWII I started reading 'the accursed kings' by Maurice Druon (well, I read it in French).
Any MTW player is bound to love it, it is all about kings, arranged marriages, killing the pope and get one's cardinal elected, poisoning kings...
More precisely, the history of the end of the Capetian kings, from Philip IV the Fair who wiped out the templars, till Charles IV his third son, and the premises of the 100 years war.
A great comapnion to the game if you are playing the English or the French is "The Great Warbow" by Robert Hardy and Matthew Strickland. Brilliant. It goes into great depth about how the longbow was made, how it was used, its capabilities and limitations (with scientific testing not some dodgy History Channel "recreation"). It clearly lays out its history from the beginnings, showing how it wasn't a Welsh weapon per se (they showed how it could be used effecively) but had been in existince in north west Europe for some considerable time. Who, how and when it was deployed in the English context and how tactics changed. How the French countered it, etc, etc...
Recommended.