The First Crusaders, 1095-1131

The First Crusaders, 1095-1131 Amazingly detailed and researched, but I would expect nothing less from Jonathan Riley-Smith. (He also wrote the book The Crusades.) This book lists every possible participant in the First Crusade, complete with documentation and, if at all possible, the location of origin of each. If you need to know about a particular ancestor who may have fought in the First Crusade, this would be your absolute best source with which to start - Mr. Riley-Smith lists in complete detail all of his original source material, along with a lengthy bibliography. You can't do better than this as a start in your search for ancestors in the First Crusade.

This book provides a balanced and very well researched account of the men and women who participated in the First Crusade. From the amount of information that Riley-Smith includes in this work, it is clear that he really knows his stuff. Sometimes the detailed accounts of the crusader's lives is a little hard to slog through, but it definitely helps support his argument. I would have liked a more general overview of the First Crusade towards the beginning of the work. I don't know much about the history of the Crusades, and I had to piece together the sequence of events as Riley-Smith mentioned them throughout his work. But besides this complaint, the book was a good read.

This book is very informative. It not bias and shares both points of view on many issues. The way the book is organized is appropiate for the books content. The dates are clear and very accurate. I enjoyed reading and using this book for reasearch because the text was interesting to read. I feel this is an easy bok to read in that the catogories are very clear. This book could be enjoyed by people of all ages and levels. Wether this is your first time studying the crusades or your 100th I feel this is a great book.