The Crusades: A History

Very happy with this book. A necessity for my course and find it easy to read.Riley Smith writes easily but without any waffle. Full of history and full of information gathered from written extracts by followersof the crusades and those who went on the crusades themselves.

This book gives a concise history of the Crusades. It helps one realize there was more than one crusade and gives some information about each one without getting too in depth.

A wonderful narrative of the history of the Crusades. Insightful, compelling, and brilliantly researched! A must read for another with an interest in this epoch of history.

This book is really weird. It is really well written, the way only a British professor can write. Yet there is no life in it. Some readers think it reads like a textbook and they are right, but perhaps a very well written textbook. The book seeks to cover every part of the Crusades. And it does so magnificently. But it gives very few details. It feels like a book written for people who are interested in learning about the Crusades but who do not know which one of the many crusades to look into. So the book gives you a few pointers on each and every one of the crusades so that you can read some other book once you have decided. The book also likes to give you tiring details into some aspect that you have no interest in, something scholars are fond of doing yet skips on details that readers of military history demand. If you read the account of the First Crusade, you will be salivating for more details about the military engagements which the author resolutely refuses to indulge in. Yet he gives the most boring details of the different repairs and modifications made to the altars once Jerusalem was conquered.This book stands in total contrast with Thomas Asbridge's The First Crusade. Strangely they are both written by British professors. Asbridge writes like a total amateur while Riley-Smith is a master writer. Asbridge displays ignorance of medieval theology but Riley-Smith is extremely well-informed. Asbridge is a typical Western liberal who hates Christianity but favors Islam. Riley-Smith is more neutral but may be mildly pro-Catholic (see the way he quickly dismisses the Jerusalem post-conquest slaughter). Asbridge's fighting scenes are detailed, bloody and exciting. Riley-Smith paints no such scenes, quite content to just report the results. Both books are far from ideal but for the military history enthusiast, Asbridge is at least entertaining.

As an author, I have to rely on others before me to have done the research, so it helped. I live in a small town without a decent bookstore, and frequently have to rely on Amazon. Thank you.

As always j Riley-Smith delivers the delicious facts of a fascinating epic in human history. Enjoy!James

The Crusades where an interesting time and the book explained in detail the reasons and result of them the Crusades.

got in on time, great condition. great pricing as well and it is exactly what i thought i would get!! AWESOME!