The Glory of the Crusades (Softcover)

How can the Crusades be called “glorious”? Our modern mindset says they were ugly wars of greed and religious intolerance—a big reason why Christians and Muslims today can’t coexist peacefully.

Historian Steve Weidenkopf challenges this received narrative with The Glory of the Crusades. Drawing on the latest and most authentic medieval scholarship, he presents a compelling case for understanding the Crusades as they were when they happened: “armed pilgrimages” driven by a holy zeal to recover conquered Christian lands. Without whitewashing their failures and even crimes, he debunks the numerous myths about the Crusades that our secular culture uses as clubs to attack the Church. 

In place of these myths he offers men and women of faith and valor who pledged their lives for the honor of Christ’s holy places. With a storyteller’s gift, Weidenkopf relates the Crusades’ many dramas—their heroes and villains, battles and sieges, intrigues and coincidences—offering a vivid and engrossing account of events that, though centuries old, have profoundly affected the course of our world to the present day.

Steve Weidenkopf explodes common myths about the Crusades and reveals the nobility and heroism of the Crusaders. This is the book to give to anyone who invokes the Crusades as a blot on the Church’s record. —Robert Spencer Author, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)

This excellent book employs decades of scholarly research to show average readers what medieval historians have long known—that popular culture’s image of the Crusades has nothing at all to do with the events themselves. Catholics who cringe at the mention of the Crusades will find in this work a surprising and inspiring story of faith. —Thomas F. Madden Director, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University