From its onset at the end of the 11th century, the Crusading movement was a war by Roman Catholicism against its Muslim, and later its Orthodox and Protestant, neighbors. While the current pope of Rome has admitted to having recognized sinfulness in the history of these Roman aggressions against the older Orthodox Chruch of the east and upon the Muslims, Riley-Smith has written that any apology for the Crusades would be misplaced, because the Roman Catholic institution itself is incapable of doing wrong. One supposes, then, that Riley-Smith thinks Urban II's _ex cathedra_ teaching that anyone killed on crusade would go directly to Heaven, never mind the medieval Latin innovation of Purgatory, is unquestionable. In short, kill some Orthodox (e.g., by torturing the patriarch of Antioch to death) or die denuding Jerusalem of its indigenous population (i.e., committing genocide -- as the soldiers of the First Crusade did), and you go straight to Heaven! Really, Mr. Riley-Smith!

For a more balanced account of these events by someone with no axe to grind, try Steven Runciman's three-volume history of the Crusades. Runciman was an Anglican, that is, a western Christian, yet he preceded John Paul II in seeing Orthodoxy as the chief victim of this vile "holy war" movement. It's amazing that works such as Riley-Smith's were still published at the end of the twentieth century.

As the back of this book states, this is a very concise account of the history of the crusading movement that occurred from the 12th to the 18th century. Riley-Smith really knows his stuff and his writing style is lucid and the book flows well.

This is somewhat of a survey book, in that the reader gets a good overview of the Crusades. The text goes beyond a survey however, in that there are vast amounts of names, places and dates. I read this book for a class on this topic, and I had some problems with the amount of minutiae that Riley-Smith included in this book. I'm just starting to learn about this topic; so obscure names are tough to slog through. What saves the book is that it is still possible to come away with a good understanding of the general themes of the text. I was amazed at the number of crusading campaigns that were undertaken, and not just in Palestine. There were movements in the Baltic, in Germany, and in North Africa. The attempts by the Spaniards to get the Moors out of Spain was considered a crusade, as was attempts to put down heresies against the Catholic Church in France. Eventually, the Church saw heresy as more of a threat against Christianity than the Muslim menace in the East. It is also interesting to see how the Church escalated the promises of indulgences to get people to go on crusade. I wasn't too happy about the author's tendency to skip about and play loose with his timeline. It made for some fairly confusing reading.

A tough book for a beginner, but it does have moments of brilliance. It probably is a good starting point for this topic, but since it is the first book I've read on the topic, I'm guessing on this point. Informative.

The previous reviewer is far more interetested in anti-Catholic bigotry than in the current state of historical scholarship on the Crusades. Dr. Riley-Smith's book is up to date while the previous work of Runciman (and others) is considered passe by the professional historian. Unfortunately, people with an axe to grind rarely are interested in the facts when their cherished preconceptions are in jeopardy.

Dr. Riley-Smith's book covers not only the medieval Crusades but also other religious wars in the later historic times. He demonstrates the complex motivations of the major figures in these various conflicts and shows that their primary concern had been religious, not economic or imperialistic. There is no "cover up" of some of the darker aspects of the Crusades, but Riley-Smith has a better understanding of the 'sitz im leben' of the Medieval world than many previous writers on this subject. Dr. Riley Smith is careful not to judge people from another time by modern standards. He dispels a number of myths that men like Runciman have unfortunately perpetuated.

This is an excellent review book for the general topic of religious wars since the Middle Ages. For more information, see these books:

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades

The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (Middle Ages Series)

The First Crusaders, 1095-1131

What Were the Crusades? (Forthcoming)

The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 4, c. 1024 - c. 1198, Part 1 (Forthcoming)