What Were the Crusades? Book

This is the most acclaimed, short introduction to the Crusades - by the world's foremost authority on the subject! Find out the truth for yourself and separate fact from fiction. Few attempts had been made to defined 'the crusade' before the first edition of this book was published in 1977. Since then, a number of historians have built on Jonathan Riley-Smith's original conclusions. Now in its third edition, this classic starting-point for the study of the crusading movement has been thoroughly revised and up-dated tin the light of recent research. What Were the Crusades? elucidates key ideas and institutions which have been negleced in the past demonstrates, through the analysis of European campaigns, that the movement was not confined to expeditions launched to recover the Holy Land - or to defend the Christian presence there - and shows that it continued, in one form orRead More