The Crusades

Combining the historian's accuracy with the novelist's understanding, this book tells the story of the Crusades. The author describes the Crusades as not only a religious phenomenon, but also an emotional movement that led people of all walks to life to leave their homes and head for Jerusalem in search of the unattainable goal of creating heaven on Earth. The book presents the great personalities of the Crusades - Bohemond, Tancred, Peter the Hermit, Godfrey of Bouillon, Richard the Lionheart and Saladin - as human beings, rather than merely as historical characters. In addition, it describes the ordinary people, who pinned all their hopes and faith on this adventure in a new land.