This book opens disarmingly with a novice historian stumbling through. This very comprehensive body of work is elegantly written and a true page turner. While never actually receiving official sanction, the socalled crusade was a. Steven runcimans 50yearold history of the crusades as the standard work. The authoritative history of the war for the holy land at. Each campaign met with varying successes and failures but, ultimately, the wider objective of keeping jerusalem and the holy land in. The very word crusade comes from a french word meaning the way of the cross, first used a century after the beginning of the crusades. The ten most important books on the crusades david abulafia i have looked for the books that in my view have had the greatest influence, particularly on scholarship in the englishspeaking world, though one nomination is in french having first been written in hebrew and another was originally in german, because both those works have had.
The crusades is an authoritative, accessible singlevolume history of the brutal struggle for the holy land in the middle ages. The energy and commitment that sent army after army into the eastern. A new history of the crusades tyerman, christopher on amazon. The authoritative history of the war for the holy land. What came before and after reflected a lot of continuity and. A history of the crusades by steven runciman, published in three volumes during 19511954, is an influential work in the historiography of the crusades. A new history of the crusades reprint by christopher tyerman isbn. Runcimans book is essentially a narrative of crusading. When men of the cross fought other men of the cross in wars of the. Thomas asbridgea renowned historian who writes with maximum vividness joan acocella, the new yorkercovers the years 1095 to 1291 in this big, ambitious, readable account of one of the most fascinating periods in history. The crusades have inspired a vast amount of writing since the very.
At a time when interest in the middle east and the crusades has reached a. Why muslims see the crusades so differently from christians. And, he came to this conclusion just two years after the war ended. Crusade, islam and the west fought for dominion of the holy land, clashing in a succession of chillingly brutal wars, both firm in the belief that they were at gods work. Second, there is the book or series of books about a given conflict a definitive account of the battle of agincourt or a study of the whole of the boer war, for two examples. How to plan a crusade is serious and scholarly, the synthesis of decades of work. Tyermans wonderful book is contemporary medieval historywriting at the top. There would be eight officially sanctioned crusades between 1095 ce and 1270 ce and many more unofficial ones. The crusades were a series of military campaigns organised by christian powers in order to retake jerusalem and the holy land back from muslim control. What a betrayal of the christ, who poured out his life on the cross, enduring injustice and making peace, to identify him with the slaughter of political enemies.
In the year 1212, tens of thousands of selfproclaimed, unarmed crusading children set out from northern france and western germany to regain jerusalem from the muslims. To say the crusades started in clermont in 1095 and ended at acre in 1291, we are fooling ourselves. If you want a readable book on the crusades, check out thomas asbridges the crusades. Historians rank the most important books on the crusades. A lot has been written on medieval christian holy war often called the. Steven runciman may be more readable, but his work is based on old perceptions of the crusades and lacks the latest in professional scholarship.