Thomas Smith Archives - Aspects of History

The Fifth Crusade: A History of the Epic Campaign to Conquer Egypt, by Thomas Smith

A compelling reassessment of a neglected campaign reveals how coalition politics, environmental miscalculation and strategic overreach combined to turn early success in Egypt into a cautionary tale.

Trevor James

For those who say that lessons cannot be learned from historical experience, my advice would be to study in some considerable detail Thomas Smith’s The Fifth Crusade. For some of us who studied medieval Europe many decades ago, and are familiar with the activities of...

The Fifth Crusade – Thomas Smith Interviewed

The historian brings new life to a dramatic invasion of Egypt, explaining to Trevor James why the conquest of Damietta and subsequent failure can be counted among the most significant and misunderstood episodes of the Crusades.

Thomas Smith

Welcome back to Aspects of History, Thomas. Your new book, The Fifth Crusade, shines a light on one of the least familiar but most consequential expeditions of the Crusading era. What first drew you to this overlooked campaign and what is it exactly that means it has...

The Forgotten Campaign to Conquer Egypt

The overlooked Fifth Crusade and the capture of Damietta show how an ambitious Christian invasion came close to reshaping the medieval Middle East.

Thomas Smith

When we think of the Crusades, the first things that come to mind are 12th-century characters such as Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, locked in combat for control of the Holy Land. The average medieval person, though, would have had a much richer understanding...