The Internet History Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. The site contains hundreds of full or partial text primary [and some secondary] sources arranged by topic. Among the larger topics covered by the Sourcebooks are Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History, which then sub-divide into numerous areas. For example, the Internet Medieval Sourcebook contains a section with roughly 90 full and partial text sources on The Crusades.
The selections of the sources are indexed according to themes making this an exceptionally valuable resource for teaching. As a result, it is hard to find an online course website for the crusades [or other course with an online componant] that does not link to the sourcebooks. This clearly accounts for the reportedly 500,000 "hits" per month the sourcebooks receive from students, scholars, and amature historians around the world. As one Fordham graduate student described the site's popularity to the editor of the crusades-encyclopedia at Kalamazoo in 2004, the Internet History Sourcebooks are "bigger than porn."
As a medievalist with a PhD from Fordham University [1999], Dr. Halsall has held a number of teaching posts at schools ranging from Brooklyn College to his most recent position with the University of North Florida [from which he resigned in the summer of 2005 for personal reasons]. He has taught numerous courses on the Middle Ages including his very popular course on the Crusades at the University of North Florida [of which the editor of this website took as an undergraduate]. In addition to presenting papers at conferences from Kalamazoo to Australia, Dr. Halsall's students have had books and articles on the crusades accepted for publication. Two of his former masters degree students, Charles Glasheen and Andrew Holt, intend to pursue their studies of the crusades in doctoral programs. Dr. Halsall maintains a blog at http://englisheclectic.blogspot.com/
http://englisheclectic.blogspot.com/
Internet History Sourcebooks Project- Main Page
Internet Medieval Sourcebooks Project- Main Page
Internet Medieval Sourcebooks Project- Crusades Section
Curriculum Vitae- *This needs quite a bit of updating*
Radio Interviews on the Crusades
Other News Stories and Interviews on the Crusades
Paul Halsall, Insight: Kingdom of Heaven, CNN Online Transcript, May 9.2005
Articles by Paul Halsall Available Online
Paul Halsall Proper Etiquette in Dealing with Online Source Providers Chronicle of Higher Education
Paul Halsall So What Happened in the Middle Ages- Basic Introduction- Cornell University
Paul Halsall Thinking About Historical Film Crusades-Encyclopedia
(c) Andrew Holt, November, 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.