Hello /r/AskHistorians
I attend a Catholic high school, and my teacher gave us a debate project regarding the Crusades. He assigned me to the anti-Crusade side. Sadly, the sources he provided for the class are quite biased toward the pro-Crusade side (as expected, since the teacher is a priest) and aren't really of any use to me. He allowed me to look online for more sources, so I implore your help. I have found a few decent sources already, but I was wondering if anyone here had any solid sources against the Crusades?
There's a book called Crusade through Arab Eyes that is a collection of sources.
What are the arguments for the Crusades?
This is a completely bizarre project.
If you are looking for primary sources, there are a few that I can suggest. Anna Komnene, daughter of Alexius I, who was the Byzantine Emperor during the First Crusade, wrote the Alexiad, a biography of her father's life. It contains a very negative view of the Crusaders, whom she regarded with distaste. It obviously is not a reliable historical source given its many biases, but it gives the interesting perspective of the Frankish warriors that she called barbarians.
Solomon bar Simson, the Mainz Anonymous, and the Eliezer bar Nathan Chronicle recount the vicious attacks on Jews in the Rhineland in 1096. You should watch for veracity, since they were written well after the attacks, but they present a damning view of the Crusaders that should not be overlooked. Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura provide the Christian view of the massacres.
For more primary sources, I would visit http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1k.asp. They list numerous primary sources that might be helpful to you, and even contain a bunch of online translations. Hope this helps. Good luck!
So, how did it go?