The Cross & the Crescent: A History of the Crusades

This book deels with the Christian Crusades in the Middle east and parts of Europe starting from the 10th century all the way into the 18th century. The book starts with a European army causing havic through Europe while heading to the Holy Land, which will start the first Crusade. From their it's it talks about the Holy Land and it's surroundings and everything that happend during all the Crusades and during times of peace. It also goes on past the third Crusade and it talks about clashes between the Muslims and Christians in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean and in Eastern Europe. The book ends in the 1800's when Napolean had the military order of the Hospitallers moved from their island home base on Malta onto mainland Europe. The book not only talks about the Crusades in the Holy Land but also the ones in Europe as well. It mentions Crusades in Spain, the Balkans, France and in other areas as well. Some of the European Crusades were political and some were to convert the land to Christianity. Due to these European Crusades and other wars it was hard to send troops and supplies to the Holy Land. It also mentions the Children's Crusade and the Shepard's Crusade. The books has a bunch of pictures throughout. They are of castle's, churche's, land, maps, and ancient pictures of battles from the time of the Crusades and centuries afterwards. My only problem with the pictures is that most of them are in black and white, so it makes it hard to appreciate some of the artwork. I really enjoyed reading this book because it was very informative about the times of the crusades in the Holy Land and in Europe. I'm sure that since this book came out it the late 80's that there have been new discoveries ont the crusades and their are newer books discussing them but I would still highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the Crusades.