The Debate on the Crusades

Eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume famously declared that "the crusades engrossed the attention of Europe and have ever since engaged the curiosity of mankind." This is the first book-length study of how succeeding generations from the First Crusade in 1099 to the present day have understood, refashioned, molded, and manipulated accounts of these medieval wars of religion to suit changing contemporary circumstances and interests. The crusades have attracted some of the leading historical writers, scholars, and controversialists from John Foxe (of Book of Martyrs fame), to the philosophers G.W. Leibniz, Voltaire, and David Hume, to historians such as William Robertson, Edward Gibbon, and Leopold Ranke. Accessibly written, a history of histories and historians, the book will be of interest to students and researchers of crusading history from upperclass undergraduate to postgraduate level, and to cultural historians focusing on the past and on medievalism.