Professor William L Urban

Contact Details

Dept of History,
Monmouth College,
Monmouth IL 61462
Office phone: (309) 457-2388
Fax: (309) 457-2152

Email: urban@monm.edu

Background

When and where did you initially develop an interest in the history of the crusades and/or the Latin East?

In 1962 I was a second year graduate student at the University of Texas, planning to write a dissertation on modern Balkan history when my advisor was offered much more pay and much less work at another university. Archie Lewis (later president of the Medieval Academy), seeing me walking down the hall, darted out of his office and asked what my plans were. I had no idea, because I could not afford to follow my advisor and no one else could direct my project. He suggested that I look further into the topic of a paper I had written for his class on Medieval Frontiers. It wouldn’t be hard at all, he suggested. Ha!

Who or what sparked your enthusiasm for the subject?

Archie Lewis had an inventive and creative mind. He saw that literally no one was working on the Baltic Crusades at that time. He recommended my studying in Germany and suggested ways of finding financial support.

I did eventually get to the Balkans, in 1986. And over the years many publishers sent me books on the Balkans, thinking it was the same as the Baltic region. I even acquired a complete set of Bosnian materials (over 80 volumes, I think, including all the medieval materials) on the assumption I would use them someday. I still have them, but the ambition has vanished.

I received tremendous help and encouragement from German colleagues, especially Professor Udo Arnold of the University of Bonn and the administration and staff of the Johann-Gottfried-Herder-Institut in Marburg/Lahn. Later, also individuals I met at conferences or through correspondence. They are too many to list, but they illustrate the important of colleagues in moving any academic enterprise forward.

Education

Please provide details of your Higher Education, including dates, institution(s) and the name(s) of your research supervisors.

The University of Texas at Austin. BA cum laude 1961, MA 1963, PhD Jan 1967.   Archibald Ross Lewis.
Universität Hamburg, Germany, 1964-5.

Career History

Please provide details of your academic career history, including confirmation of your current institutional affiliation and contact details.

  • The University of Kansas, Lawrence Kansas. Assistant professor 1965-66, summer 1966.
  • Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois. 1966- present.
  • Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. Spring 1971 and Fall 1972.
  • Fort Hays Kansas State College, Hays, Kansas. Visiting professor, summer 1971.
  • Arts of Florence, Associated Colleges of the Midwest. Director, 1974-75.
  • Yugoslavia program, Associated Colleges of the Midwest and Great Lakes Colleges Association, Director, Zagreb, fall semester 1986.
  • Estonian Institute for the Humanities. Tallinn, Estonia. May-June 1992.
  • Czech program, Associated Colleges of the Midwest and Great Lakes Colleges Association, Director, Olomouc, fall semester 1994.

Influences and Methodologies

What ideas and/or methodologies have informed your approach to your research?

There is no substitute for the original sources. Academic theories tend to melt away when dashed with the cold water of facts. I also like writing for non-specialists, which means telling the story as well as possible.

Research Outlook

What do you consider to be the most important avenues for future research in the field of crusader studies?

Every field of history faces the same problem—there are ever more historians, ever better prepared, and all expected to publish. Fortunately, new sources (though often obscure) are being found or developed. Find a field not already over-crowded but with an obvious connection to the larger academic world, and begin to plow it. Who knows what will turn up? It may be only rocks, but it might be treasure. Find connections to the rest of the medieval experience, and to the modern world, and make them known. Time has a way of opening new doors or, at least, suggesting which ones to knock on.

Research Output

Please provide details of your research output, including publications and other media as appropriate.

  • The Baltic Crusade. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 1975. 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Study Center, 1994.
  • The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle. Translation with Jerry Smith. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Publications, 1977. 2nd edition. Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 2001.
  • The Prussian Crusade. Washington: University Press of America, 1980. Revised and enlarged second edition Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 2000.
  • The Livonian Crusade. Washington: University Press of America, 1981. Revised and enlarged second edition. Chicago: Lithuania Research and Studies Center, 2004.
  • The Chronicle of Balthasar Russow. Translation with Jerry Smith and Juergen Eichhoff. Madison: Wisconsin Baltic Studies Series, 1988. Hard and soft covers.
  • The Samogitian Crusade. Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Study Center, 1989. 2nd edition, enlarged and revised, 2006.
  • Dithmarschen, a medieval peasant republic Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen, 1991.
  • Salomon Henning's Chronicle, translation with Jerry C Smith and J Ward Jones. [Wisconsin Baltic Studies Series] Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt, 1992. Hard and soft covers. Out of print.
  • Translation of Johannes Renner's Chronicle with Jerry C Smith and Ward Jones. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1997.
  • Tannenberg and After. Lithuania, Poland and the Teutonic Order in Search of Immortality. Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 1999. Revised edition: 2002.
  • The Teutonic Knights: a military history.. London: Greenhill, 2003.
  • Medieval Mercenaries: the Business of War. London: Greenhill, 2006.
  • Bayonets for Hire: the Business of War, 1550-1763. London: Greenhill, 2007.
  • The Nationality of Balthasar Russow. Journal of Baltic Studies, 12/2(1981), 160-172. (Shared 1983 Award of Dr Arthur Puksov Foundation for original research in Estonian history.)
  • When was Chaucer's Knight in `Ruce'? Chaucer Review, 18(1984), 347-53.
  • The Teutonic Order and the Christianization of Lithuania. La cristianizazione della Lituania (ed Paulius Rabikauskas. Vatican: Editrice Vaticana, 1989), 105-135.
  • Renaissance Humanism in Prussia: Early Humanism in Prussia, JBS, 22/1(Spring 1991), 29-73
  • Renaissance Humanism in Prussia: the Court of the Grandmasters, JBS, 22/2(1991), 95-122.
  • Renaissance Humanism in Prussia: Nicholas Copernicus, Humanist Politician, JBS, 22/3(1991), 195-232.
  • Rethinking the Crusades, Perspectives [newsletter of the American Historical Association], 36/7 (October 1998), 25-29.
  • Victims of the Baltic Crusade, Journal of Baltic Studies, 29/3 (Fall 1998), 195-212. Awarded the Vitols Prize of the AABS for the best article of that year published in the JBS.
  • The Frontier Thesis and the Baltic Crusade, Crusade and Conversion on the Baltic Frontier, 1150-1500 (ed Alan V Murray. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), 45-71.

 

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