A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187 [Hardcover]

Steven Runciman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1968

Sir Steven Runciman's three volume A History of the Crusades, one of the great classics of English historical writing, is now being reissued. This volume describes the Frankish states of Outremer from the accession of King Baldwin I to the re-conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin. As Runciman says in his preface, 'The politics of the Moslem world in the early twelfth-century defy straightforward analysis, but they must be understood if we are to understand the establishment of the Crusader states and the later causes of the recovery of Islam ... The main theme in this volume is warfare ... I have followed the example of the old chroniclers, who knew their business; for war was the background to life in Outremer and the hazards of the battlefield often decided its destiny.'

Editorial Reviews

Review

'I do not know when, in recent years, I have read a book which so enlarged my knowledge of and interest in a period of history ... It sets before us one of the formidable moral and romantic epics of our time, with scholarship and imagination worthy of it.' The Times Literary Supplement

'The three volumes ring with battle trumpets and drums, glitter with the splendor of noble parades, and are replete with true stories of bravery and cowardliness, rash daring and wily intrigue ... To the specialist (Runicman) offers a wealth of new interpretations ... To the layman, he tenders romance and suspense at nearly every page.' The Yale Review

' ... the best scholarly survey of the subject by a single author. It will always remain the first considerable work of its kind in the English language.' The English Historical Review

'One of the grand historical monuments of the twentieth century ... Written with imagination and based on immense scholarship, (the volumes) are filled with true stories of rash daring and wily intrigue as the flower of Western knighthood assaults the infidel East for God, gold and glory.' Washington Post Book World

Book Description

Sir Steven Runciman's, A History of the Crusades (volume 2), describes the Frankish states of Outremer from the accession of King Baldwin I to the re-conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin. This is one of the great classics of English historical writing and a great survey of the time.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 535 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 1, 1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521061628
• ISBN-13: 978-0521061629
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,392,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best narrative of the two centuries of Outremer, April 25, 2002

By 

Juan Alberto Diaz Wiechers (Santiago Chile) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187 (Hardcover)

I have read this Cambridge edition of Sir Steven Runciman's great three-volume "History of the Crusades". I can only say that the narrative is excelent, and that in my opinion it is difficult to find another book that describes so well, and in both detailed and concise ways, the two centuries of history of the Frankish states in Syria. The first volume comprises the whole first Crusade, from its origins to the establishment of the four Latin states: the Principality of Antioch, the counties of Edessa and Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The second volume tells the history of those princedoms for almost a century, including the fall of Edessa, until the great defeat of the first Kingdom of Jerusalem, that for a long time had been an established Christian power in Palestine, extending well beyond the Jordan river. The third volume speaks of the last century of Outremer, reduced only to coast defenses, no longer powerful, and always in peril, until the fall of (St. John of) Accre in 1291. Two centuries where the main characters are the Frankish and Norman lords of the first Crusade, the Eastern Roman emperors of Constantinople (especially Alexius, John and Manuel Comnenus) and the now weak though organized Byzantine armies, the Counts of Edessa and Tripoli, the Princes of Antioch, the Kings of the Jerusalem (especially until the end of the first and mighty Kingdom), the pious Christian crusaders and the evil adventurers, the great and wise Saladin, Richard the Lionheart and the men of the Third Crusade, the shamefull venetians and Frenchmen who pillaged Constantinople in the so-called "Fourth Crusade", the fighting monks of the three great military orders (Temple, Hospital and Teutonic Knights), the Palestine-born barons who kept what remained of the Christian Holy Land, the Nestorian Mongols, the native Christians of Syrian or Greek stock, the Arab neighbours, the Armenian princedom in Asia Minor, the Moslem Turks and other related stocks, the cruel Egyptian Mameluks. It is a history of great achievements, brave and pious actions, great and doomed expeditions, treasons, cruelty (on both sides), great honour (Saladin is a good exemple), terrible defeats, a sudden resurrection, religious tolerance and also intolerance, etc. In summary, these three volumes include a wide range of developments, always seen from an independent and critical standpoint. Two hundred years of the history of a whole world that once existed and now is forever gone. Today its only remants are those Arab-speaking eastern Christians who due to the Crusader's activities turned to obbey the Roman Church, some Latin churches and castles, and the remembrances (brought again to life by this work) of one of mankind's greatest adventures.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best history of the Crusades, July 16, 2002

By 

R. C. Schmults "rob0" (Brookline, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187 (Hardcover)

When I was young, the Crusades were portrayed as brief incursions -- not much more than prolonged raids. It was not until I read Runciman's 3 volume history that the duration of the kingdoms established by the crusades became clear. Runciman was a gifted historian -- combining scholarship with story telling -- and this is arguably his finest work. While I have heard opinions that these books are "dated" -- and this is probably true -- I think the average reader looking to get a compelling overview of the crusades could not any better than this and the 2 volumes that follow.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History Written in Lightning, October 23, 2000

By 

James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of the Crusades: Volume II The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187 (Paperback)

Years ago, I had purchased this volume and Volume III in the old Harper Colophon paperback edition. I had to wait over 20 years before Volume I came back into print -- and then in one glorious summer I read all three volumes. (Just recently, I sprang for the deluxe Folio Society hardbound edition: I mean to re-read it some day.)

If you have any interest in the Middle Ages, or even in the pre-history of today's Middle East crises, this series is your starting point. The crusades bring together the best and worst of men, from Godfrey of Bouillon and Saladin on one hand, to the bickering kinglets of the later Crusades on the other.

The story of the Crusader Kingdoms is the subject of this volume. It is a long story of greed and attrition, leading to their extinction as the Saracens' power waxed and the Western monarchies' political will and religious zeal waned. The rise of nationalism in Western Europe sounded the death knell to the centuries'-long quest to regain the Holy Land.

Curiously, it was the Saracens who were tolerant to their subject peoples, and the Crusader Kingdoms who were not. The Jews and Christians had a much better time of it under Turkish rule than under the voracious princelings of the Kindgoms of Armenia, Edessa, Jerusalem, and so on. We have yet to learn our lessons from this conflict -- and we are still paying the price.