{"product_id":"2026100010546-secondhand-the-first-crusade","title":"The First Crusade","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Previous owner\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the dying years of the eleventh century, a pope's call to arms ignited one of the most dramatic and consequential military campaigns in the history of Christendom — The First Crusade chronicles the extraordinary and bloody campaign that saw thousands of knights, foot soldiers, and pilgrims march from Western Europe to the Holy Land, culminating in the siege and capture of Jerusalem in 1099. Steven Runciman reconstructs the campaign with meticulous precision, tracing the motivations of its leaders — from the zealous Peter the Hermit to the calculating Bohemond of Taranto — and illuminating the political machinations that shaped every step of the journey through Byzantine Constantinople and into the sun-scorched deserts of the Levant.\n\nRunciman's prose carries the sweep of epic narrative while maintaining the rigour of first-rate scholarship, drawing on Byzantine, Arabic, and Latin sources to present a multi-perspective account that refuses to reduce its subjects to simple heroes or villains. His masterful command of the period's geopolitical complexity — the fractured Islamic world, the declining Byzantine Empire, and the ambitions of the Latin West — gives the reader an understanding of the Crusade's lasting ramifications for East-West relations that resonates to this day. A landmark work of medieval historiography, this volume leaves the reader questioning just how much of history is shaped by faith, and how much by conquest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50736087695579,"sku":"2026100010546-SECONDHAND","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/ef40ea90-c10e-4ffd-8cdf-1d717c3eae1c.png?v=1792122375","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100010546-secondhand-the-first-crusade","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}