I was wondering if anybody could recommend a good discussion of the Crusades that doesn't fall into either of the tedious "heroic Europeans vs. evil Muslims" or "evil European zealots vs. the enlightened Muslim world" tropes? Thanks!
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I suggest:
The Crusades: A History, by Jonathan Riley-Smith.
Riley-Smith details the political, ideological and religious motivations of the architects and their foot soldiers, on all sides. He also provides comparisons with other religiously inspired wars, placing the crusades within a larger context (that is, not as a singular example of European evil, but an instance of the kind of socio-political conflict human societies have gotten tangled in for a long time).
It's a dry book at times (okay, a lot of the time) but given the sentiments its subject usually inspires, this detachement is a welcome innovation.
.d.