''A History of the Crusades'' by

Steven Runciman Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman ( – ), known as Steven Runciman, was an English historian best known for his three-volume ''A History of the Crusades'' (1951–54). He was a strong admirer of the Byzantine Empire. His history's negative ...

, published in three volumes during 1951–1954 (vol. I - ''The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem''; vol. II - ''The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187''; vol. III - ''The Kingdom of Accre and the Later Crusades''), is an influential work in the historiography of the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

, including the events that led up to these expeditions to the Holy Land and an extensive study of

primary sources In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

. It has seen numerous reprints and translations and in some respects has come to be seen as a standard work on the topic. Its scope encompasses the ascendancy of Islam in the Levant during the early 7th century through the

fall of Acre The siege of Acre (also called the fall of Acre) took place in 1291 and resulted in the Crusaders losing control of Acre to the Mamluks. It is considered one of the most important battles of the period. Although the crusading movement continu ...

in 1291, with later chapters covering through 1464, the time of pope

Pius II Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...

. The work draws on a wide range of primary sources (in Greek, Latin, Armenian, Arabic). At the time of its initial publication it offered a novel interpretation of the crusades, less as a defensive war of Christendom against the threat of

Islamic expansion The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territories ...

but as a continuation of the destructive "barbarian invasions" that led to the

fall of Rome The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...

. Furthermore, Runciman includes the

history of the Byzantine Empire This history of the Byzantine Empire covers the history of the Eastern Roman Empire from late antiquity until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the transitional period during which the Roman ...

in his scope, moving his focus further east and at the same time tempering the "Romantic" view of the crusades as a heroic or chivalrous enterprise. The review of the first volume by Egyptian historian Aziz Atiya was generally positive, with the view that the work would fill a much needed gap between René Grousset's work published in 1934 and the planned

Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades The Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades was a six-volume set on the Crusades through the 16th century, published from 1969 to 1989. The work was a major collaborative effort under the general editorship of American medieval historian Ke ...

(for which Runciman contributed four chapters). Runciman's approach, while it may have had value in overcoming overly romantic views of the crusades held in the 19th century, has not aged well, and is now seen as having gone beyond the mark by painting the crusaders as "simpletons or barbarians".

Thomas F. Madden Thomas F. Madden (born 10 June 1960) is an American historian, a former Chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. A sp ...

(2002) called the work "terrible history yet wonderfully entertaining." This criticism might have been encouraged by Runciman's own attitude, which embraced subjectivity and polemics. He described his approach in the first volume of ''A History of the Crusades'' as his "one pen against the massed typewriters of the United States". Runciman believed that, "The historian must attempt to add to his subjective study the qualities of intuitive sympathy and imaginative perception, without which he cannot hope to comprehend the fears and aspirations and convictions that have moved past generations." This statement is a key to understanding his unique style but also explains much of the criticism leveled at it. It is nevertheless undisputed that the work contains genuine scholarship and has been very influential on the generation of scholars educated during the 1950s to 1970s. Bernard Hamilton wrote in 2000: "The first two volumes of Sir Steven’s History of the Crusades were published while I was an undergraduate. I read them with avidity ��I still think that his ''History'' is one of the great literary works of English historical writing, which has inspired an interest in and enthusiasm for the crusades in a whole generation."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:History of the Crusades 1951 non-fiction books 1952 non-fiction books 1954 non-fiction books Books about the Crusades 20th-century history books Cambridge University Press books Historiography of the Crusades Book series introduced in 1951