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Show March 13, 1951 Mr, 0atus C. Smith Director « University Press 41 Willie Street Princeton, Hew Jersey Dear Mr* Smiths 1 have Just returned to Washington, after completing ay present lecture tour to Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and other institutions in the East, The thole thing M s hmn a pleasant experience, and the kind enthusiasm for my rudest lectures on the Crusades has been most gratifying, Personally, I feel that the finest feature accruing from this tour Is your interest in the publication of a email volume on "The Crusades - Old Ideas and tlew iBtpressiene * • 1 shall be perfectly hs.ppy to prepare the book on such the same lines as I have detailed in my lectures at Princeton University. This viil be no ordinary reiteration of tha events e£ crusading additions which are accessible in other books written by many scholars, including ay •«• works* It will, on the contrary, embody what I may describe in general as the pMiosfiphy of crusading historiography which is the result of np long patterning over this subject during nearly a quarter of a century, In other words, the Crusade as a movement will be reviewed in it froa a new angle aufi in a different light. The usain aim of the work nay be sunned up in the fact that it wlH provide the general reader with a lucid and refreshing survey of the whole field as seen from a now angle, and in the iaeantliae furnish the younger research scholar with a starting point in natters of bibliographical guidance and open fp the m>» trodden paths for hi» in crusading history, «It is" loped that, above all considerations, the work will be a source of inspiration rather than a dry manual for instructional purposes* •It is hard at the present juncture to delineate the full table of contents. But the spirit of the new publication, which 1 have been contemplating for sou© years, ought to be clear froa this general policy of the book. Since 1 produced my own work on «Tte Crusade in the Later Middle Ages,w few others have appeared <?* |
