A fully revised and updated second edition of this exemplary and authoritative account of the history of the Crusades The Crusades: A History is a comprehensive, single-volume history of the Crusades, from their beginnings in the eleventh century through to their decline and eventual ending at the close of the eighteenth century. As well as providing an account of the major Crusades, the book describes the organization of a Crusade, the experience of crusading and the Crusaders themselves. In this fully revised second edition, which includes a new preface and afterword, Jonathan Riley-Smith takes into account recent developments in the field and examines how the Crusades' endeavour has been perceived in different periods, from the Romantics to the Islamic world today. The book concludes with a challenge to a historiographical tradition that has often been fraught and in which priorities now seem to be changing. This fully-updated and fascinating book remains the standard and authoritative account of the history of the Crusades.

Author Biography

Jonathan Riley-Smith is Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Cambridge. His many publications on the Crusades and Crusading include What Were the Crusades?; The Oxford History of the Crusades; and The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading.