God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades - Hardcover

GOD'S BATTALIONS launches a frontal assault on the comfortable myths that scholars have popularized about the crusades. The results are startling. His greatest achievement is to make us see the crusaders on their own terms. -- Philip Jenkins, author of The Lost History of Christianity

"A cogent and feisty apologist for Christian history . . . An excitingly readable distillation of the new, revisionist Crusades historiography" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Award-winning author and sociologist Rodney Stark humbly goes to war against the many politically correct myths surrounding the history of the Crusades in this well-researched and easy-to-read academic masterpiece. Stark proves himself once again as a historical myth-buster."--CBN.com, A+ rating

"Stark's clear, factual narrative offers larger-than-life characters.... [his] works are an encouraging corrective to the anti-Western history routinely taught in our schools."--New Oxford Review

"[Stark's] new book, God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, gives historic and sociological evidence for a fresh assessment of the Crusades."--United Methodist Reporter

"GOD'S BATTALIONS launches a frontal assault on the comfortable myths that scholars have popularized about the crusades. The results are startling. His greatest achievement is to make us see the crusaders on their own terms."--Philip Jenkins, author of The Lost History of Christianity

"There is much to be learned here. Filled with fascinating historical glimpses of monks and Templars, priests and pilgrims, kings and contemplatives, Stark pulls it all together and challenges us to reconsider our view of the Crusades."--Publishers Weekly

"At last, a convincing, balanced book on the Crusades, far from the recent unsophisticated and ideological diatribes against them as "A Bad Thing." Rodney Stark demonstrates that the Crusades were neither unprovoked nor colonialist. Here is yet another rich and readable book from this thoughtful and distinguished author."--Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of A History of Heaven and Paradise Mislaid

"[Stark] wants to challenge the prevailing television pundit-level misunderstanding of the Crusades, and in this, his accessible, enjoyably argued book succeeds."--Christianity Today

"Stark's wonderfully readable prose and politically incorrect conclusions... point us to the question--Will 21st-century infiltration lead to surrender or revival?--on which Europe's future hinges."--The World Magazine

The author of For the Glory of God puts forth a controversial argument that the Crusades were a justified war against Muslim terror and aggression, in a book that reviews the history of the seven major crusades from 1095 to 1291. 35,000 first printing.