I found a great blog named Crusades and Crusaders. The blog’s About page says, “The purpose of this blog is to provide you, the reader, with information that is engaging, informative, educational and entertaining; information that is also well researched.” Boy Howdy. It is written by two degreed historians, one, Deanna Proach, who is a journalist with a Bachelors Degree in History from University of Northern British Columbia and one, Helena Schrader, who is a Foreign Service Officer and published (prolific) author of both fiction and non-fiction books with a Ph.D. in History from University of Hamburg. The depth and quality of the scholarship in this blog is amazing, especially because it is aimed, more or less, at a lay audience.
We are big fans of Rodney Stark having read many of his books. We first started to get an understanding of the truth about the Crusades from his book God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades that we used as part of our homeschool curriculum. This blog cites Stark quite a bit, but the focus is on History rather than Sociology. In some ways, that makes it a more interesting or, at least, a very different read than Stark’s work in that specific personalities are discussed along with specific events. There is a narrative to the articles that give a better feel for the culture, values and motivations of the people involved. You get to know people, not just facts. One of the features I especially liked was the review of books with an assessment of their historical accuracy. I highly recommend this website. I plan to make it a regular stopping place.
Betty Blonde #352 – 11/20/2009
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