The Crusades

Description

In addition to a clear, engaging survey of the Christian crusades to the Holy Lands, this book offers an overview of the many contemporary campaigns against non-Christians throughout Europe and the Middle East. Seventeen biographical sketches of key figures and a dozen primary texts in translation are included, as are six maps and an annotated bibliography and chronology.

Helen Nicholson is Reader in History, Cardiff University.

Nicholson discusses the many different types of crusades, including not only the expeditions to the Holy Land, but also those against heretics and pagans in Europe; the reconquest of Spain from the Muslims; and crusades against the Turks in the Balkans. She also discusses the different schools of thought among historians as to how to define crusades and why medieval Christians went on them. . . . The appended biographies and glossary are well done, but even more useful are the relevant primary documents conveniently included. -- School Library Journal