Synopses & Reviews
This book provides an overview and context of the study of the Crusades for postgraduates and academics. With contributions from leading international scholars, the book covers developments in historical theory from logistics to gender studies as applied to Crusades studies.
Review
"An original and thought-provoking series of essays by top-flight scholars. The collection sets out many essential themes of crusading history in a refreshing and accessible fashion."--Jonathan Phillips
Synopsis
The crusades were a devastating force of the Middle Ages that still, perhaps more than ever, exerts a powerful influence on medieval scholarship. This volume is intended as an introductory guide to the directions that this scholarship has taken, rather than to the history of the crusades themselves. Aimed at undergraduates and academics, the study presents a series of approaches by both young and well-established scholars, supported by lists of suggested further reading, maps, a chronology and a timeline of significant academic studies. The twelve essays are clearly structured and include discussions of the ideology and logistics of crusading, and the different ways in which academics approach the material evidence in order to examine such topics as gender, frontiers, colonisation and national-feeling. The final essays are concerned with the way in which Christians, Byzantines, Muslims and modern Greeks regarded the crusades and each other.
About the Author
Helen Nicholson is Senior Lecturer in History at Cardiff University.