The inclusion of the subject of the crusades in this series of
Oxford histories and the fact that only one of the contributors is
from outside Britain provide an opportunity to reflect upon the
phenomenal rise in the number of British crusade scholars since
the early 1950s, when there cannot have been more than half a
dozen, only two of whom were historians, teaching in the uni-
versities. By 1990 twenty-nine history departments in British
universities and colleges had members of the Society for the
Study of the Crusades on their staff. The subject's strength in
British academic circles probably owes most to a general public
interest, a fascination with the Near East which has a long his-
tory, the reputation of St John Ambulance, which associates
itself with the medieval Knights Hospitallers, and the continuing
success of Sir Steven Runciman A History of the Crusades.

This volume reflects the recent developments in crusade his-
toriography which are described in Chapter 1. It covers crusad-
ing in many different theatres of war. The concepts of apologists,
propagandists, song-writers, and poets, and the perceptions and
motives of the crusaders themselves are described, as are the
emotional and intellectual reactions of the Muslims to Christian
holy war. The institutional developments--legal, financial, and
structural--which were necessary to the movement's survival are
analysed. Several chapters are devoted to the western settlements
established in the eastern Mediterranean region in the wake of
the crusades, to the remarkable art and architecture associated
with them, and to the military orders. The subject of the later
crusades, including the history of the military orders from the
sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, is given the attention it
deserves. And the first steps are taken on to a field that is as yet
hardly explored, the survival of the ideas and images of crusad-
ing into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

JONATHAN RILEY-SMITH

Croxton, Cambridgeshire
April, 1994

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