Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World » (Reprint)

Karen Armstrong is the author of Islam and the recent bestseller Buddha as well as The Battle for God and A History of God. In fall 2001 she will be Scholar in Residence at Lowell House, Harvard University.

Karen Armstrong, bestselling author of A History of God, skillfully narrates this history of the Crusades with a view toward their profound and continuing influence.

In 1095 Pope Urban II summoned Christian warriors to take up the cross and reconquer the Holy Land. Thus began the holy wars that would focus the power of Europe against a common enemy and become the stuff of romantic legend. In reality the Crusades were a series of rabidly savage conflicts in the name of piety. And, as Armstrong demonstrates in this fascinating book, their legacy of religious violence continues today in the Middle East, where the age-old conflict of Christians, Jews, and Muslims persists.

Publishers Weekly

Judaism, Christianity and Islam--obviously central to Middle East crises today--were also at the crux of the Crusades nearly 1000 years ago. Maps. (Mar.)