1515 The Crusades, by Zoe Oldenburg translated from the French by Anne Carter (read 25 Apr 1979) This covers the period from 1096 to roughly 1192, and hence covers only the first three Crusades. It actually spends little time on the Second Crusade (1147) but covers the First and Third quite thoroughly, and devotes much time to the Frankish kingdom established in Palestine. It is really a fascinating story, and sad. This book is not well organized like Runciman's three volumes. (which I read in November and December of 1974) but it was a good refresher of a fantastic era. I wonder what my ancestors did about the Crusades. How I would love to be able to trace myself back that far. ( )

I remember reading Oldenbourg's "The Crusades" for a tenth grade history presentation (late 1990s) and was quickly drawn into the socio-political portrait created by the author, the first history book to have ever interested me so thoroughly. Having forgotten the author's name (and with the plethora of other works with similar titles) I was unable to relocate it for years despite scouring the internet. It was only through LibraryThing that I was able to find it again by recognizing the original book cover design from the 1966 edition. Here, Oldenbourg is a very accessible writer. Some of the events described, such as the Children's Crusade, might be out of date in the face of more recent research. But on the whole, this account of the crusades manages to weave together various figures, their personal backgrounds and motivations, and how they fit into the overall history of the period. To this day I can vividly recall the imagery the author invoked when describing Emperor Alexius looking out upon the host of the western european forces arriving at Constantinople and realizing by their numbers that his request for aid against the border incursions of the Seljuk Turks had been used as a pretext to advance through his territory and to conquer Jerusalem. This is one of the most engaging historical texts I have read. ( )