Summer Reading List: Crusades

One of Merrystar’s coworkers asked me at a party if I could recommend some books about the First Crusade for his summer travel plans.

I, of course, was overjoyed to get such a request. (And yes, it was a fun party, these sorts of conversations are normal for them.)

So, instead of just linking to the Wikipedia entry, I spent some time tonight going through my bookroom, browsing to see which books I would recommend.

• A good introduction to the Crusading movement is The Crusades by Hans Eberhard Mayer. This offers a good introduction to the ideology and places the First Crusade context of all that follows. (Plus, it has the Mongol Yoke!)

• Next, source materials. The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials (edited by Edward Peters, no relation) is where moderately serious history begins.

• Other good primary sources include Chronicles of the Crusades by Joinville and Villehardouin and The Alexiad of Anna Comnena. I thought about recommending The Song of Roland and The Poem of the Cid, but they are really better for later Crusades (especially the Reconquista.)

• For views outside the Christian participants, I would recommend Arab Historians of the Crusades by by Francesco Gabrieli for contemporary accounts and The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century by Hugh Kennedy for context of the Caliphate at the time of the invasions.

• I’m still searching for a good contemporary Byzantine history (other than those already included in The First Crusade and The Alexiad), but The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity 395-600 by Averil Cameron is a good place to start.

• I am sadly at a loss to provide a good book recommendation that deals solely with the rise of anti-semitic violence in the wake of the First Crusade, but many of these others touch on it, particularly the Peters book.

• If you are looking for good introductions to medieval history, Norman Cantor’s Civilization of the Middle Ages is deservedly respected, though I used Edward Peters’ Europe and the Middle Ages as my primary introductory textbook in college. I see they’re on the fourth edition; I used the first (which was blue, I think) and replaced it with the second (red) after my first year.

While it’s outside of the scope of the First Crusade, I can’t let the opportunity pass without also plugging Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 by Roger Collins. I had a photocopied version of it for years from my Medieval History I class (yes, we wrote to the publisher for permission, I had to pay $30 for it) that was an eyesore for years before I stumbled across a copy in a used bookstore in Bellingham, Washington. I squeeeeed like a little fanboy when I found it, but that is a story for another time.

Enjoy!