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Title: An Interesting Read
Review: Cavaliero's The Last of the Crusaders was first published in 1960 so it is fairly old. Nonetheless it is still an essential reading for the Hospitaller's last century on Malta. Cavaliero, naturally writing in hindsight, presents the Knights' ousting from Malta in 1798 as long overdue; this makes for good reading but bad perspective. One gets the sense this is as much an elegy for the Hospitallers on Malta as it is a historical work. To Cavaliero's benefit, though, this is a subject that has received scant attention despite the general swell in popular interest in the military orders; he is to be credited with tackling this period of history with a kind of style other historians would be envious to achieve. In summation:Get this book? Yes. It is well worth it, despite its faults.
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