An Analysis of Jonathan Riley-Smith's The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading: The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading (The Macat Library) - Hardcover

Peters, Damien

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1912302748 ISBN 13: 9781912302741

Publisher: Macat Library, 2017

Synopsis

Perhaps no work of history written in the 20th century has done more to undermine an existing consensus and cause its readers to re-evaluate their own preconceptions than has Jonathan Riley-Smith's revisionist account of the motives of the first crusaders.

Riley-Smith's thesis – based on extensive original research and firmly rooted in his refusal to uncritically accept the evidence or reasoning of earlier historians – is that the majority of the men who travelled to the east on crusade in the years 1098-1100 were primarily motivated by faith. This finding, which ran directly counter to at least four centuries of consensus that other motives, not least greed for land, were more important, has helped to stimulate exciting reappraisals of the whole crusading movement. Riley-Smith backed it up with forensic examination of the key crusader-inspiring speech delivered by Pope Urban II, looking to clarify the meanings of five competing contemporary accounts in order to understand how an initially simple, and rather confused, appeal for help became a sophisticated rationale for the concept of ‘just war.’

About this title

About the Author

Damien Peters holds an MA in the History of International Relations from University College, Dublin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Macat Library
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1912302748
• ISBN 13: 9781912302741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96