Crusades - Virginia Tech lecture series

Back to the podcasting professor from Virginia Tech Matthew Gabriele. He also coordinates public lecture series at VT that are supposed to be podcast in a podcast that I had reviewed before Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events (see Virginia Tech history podcast page). In March 2008 I wrote about the excellent and thought provoking lecture by Joseph Miller about the history of Africa. I was keeping an eye on the feed, but found nothing new.

By chance I ran into some parallel feeds. It just so turned out these podcast lectures are put in a separate feed for each semester. Hence, from the fall 2008 feed, I extracted a lecture that I had missed. Jay Rubinstein spoke about the first crusade and how the feats in this crusade had a formative impact on Europe. Godfrey of Bouillon managed to capture Jerusalem and became the first king in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, a state that maintained its grip in the east for some 70 years. This feat captured the imagination of the west. It took on apocalyptic meaning and even if the dream of prophecies come true had to pass, it changed Europe. It brought unity and self-esteem into Christendom.

From the introduction is appears that Rubinstein's lecture is the second in a series that consists of a handful of lectures. Apparently they were not (successfully) recorded and so Rubinstein's is the only one available. Also in the spring 2009 feed there is but one lecture present. Soon I will be listening to that one as well.

More Virginia Tech:
Medieval Heroes in short, (no link available yet - expect update soon)
Thinking outside the European box,
Medieval Texts.