Rating: 
Summary: The Worst of Both Worlds
Review: This, with volumes II and III, is the definitive history of the Crusades. Runciman refrained from opinion, but is very clear about the background of the Crusades. From the first century, the Holy Land was in Christian hands, and Christians and Jews dwelt together in relative peace. In the eighth century Arab Muslims conquered the Holy Land, but mostly left Christians and Jews alone to live their own lives. But toward the end of the first millenium, Seljuk Turks moved into this area and persecution began. Pilgrimages, which had been conducted from the first century were forbidden, and it was dangerous for Christians to enter the domain of the Turks.
The main story begins with the call of Pope Urban for an army to take back the Holy Land so that pilgrimages might resume. Runciman shows how the pope's vision was not to be implemented. Almost the only armies that responded were Franks from what is today France and Germany. Those Franks had undergone mass baptism several centuries earlier when their king, Clovis, had been converted. Their conversion appears to have been incomplete, and they were not only warlike, but accustomed to raiding their neighbors, looting and killing and destroying the land. On their way to the Holy Land they passed through the Christian country of Byzantium and caused no end of trouble for the Byzantines. When they arrived in the Holy Land, they drove the Muslims out and established several "Christian" kingdoms which endured in an unstable peace until the Muslims grew stronger and reconquered the land and drove out the Frankish princes. As C. S. Lewis remarked, after reading Runciman's account, both sides were a bunch of thugs, except for Saladin.
Rating:
Summary: The Counter-Crusade
Review: Trite as it may seem, this book could accurately be subtitled, "The Arab Empire Strikes Back." Having been introduced to the knights of the First Crusade in the first instalment, the reader rejoins Kings Baldwin and Bohemund, their issue and successors and endures with them the steady erosion and corruption of the Frankish East. Meanwhile, the Arab Caliphs, despite their internal political divisions, undergo a military renaissance, leading, at the very end of this instalment, to the advent of Saladin, the fall of Antioch and the ultimate capture of Jerusalem. Among the highlights in this period are the steady evolution of the special military orders such as the Hospitallers and Templars, and (on the Muslim side) the Assassins.
Rating: 
Summary: A Direct and Efficient Account
Review: Western Europe in the middle ages is often depicted as a static and insular social system--and, to be sure, certain aspects of medieval history support that impression. But the events described in this fine book challenge such portrayals, showing a Western Europe in the eleventh century that was intimately involved in the eastern Mediterranean. Runciman traces this interaction back to the Roman Empire, beginning his book with a charmingly concise yet informative history of Christian society in the East. We see how alert the West was to events in Asia Minor and the Levant: I was struck by how, a thousand years ago, tourism was such an important industry. Constantinople functioned almost as a modern-day theme park--with relics, art and architecture being the big-budget attractions--and as a crucial transportation hub along the pilgrimage route. The breakdown of this tourist industry due to local political instability--and its importance to the West--is what proximally prompted the Crusades. And in the Crusades themselves is reflected the dynamic nature of medieval political history; in particular we see the restless aspirations of the powerful Norman warlords (especially their somewhat disenfranchised younger sons) played out as a key military motor of the Crusades. Reading the background Runciman gives to the Normans (Christianized descendants of the Vikings), and the Seldjuks (Islamized descendants of Turkish nomads), I could not help but notice a certain loose symmetry to their stories, and it didn't seem so odd that they would meet at the interface of the two great Mediterranean faiths. There is much that I found eye-opening in the narrative: from the murderous anti-Jewish pogroms in Western Europe that the Crusaders used as warm-up exercises, to the pathetic lawlessness of their course through Hungary and Byzantium, to the Monty-Pythonesque absurdities of the "medieval mind" (e.g., the throng of German peasants led to the Crusades by "a goose that had been inspired by God"). As an aside, while this may seem to be a very male-oriented subject, in fact a female is probably the most important personality in Runciman's work: it relies most heavily on the account of Anna Comnena, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius. Runciman repeatedly makes a passionate case for accepting her chronicle as the most trustworthy of the contemporary accounts, and uses it extensively in his reconstruction.
Rating:
Summary: Best history of the Crusades
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: History Written in Lightning
Review: 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.
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