For almost four hundred years, three civilizations put an endless stream of energy and people into a great movement called the Crusades. Beautiful cities were destroyed, armies clashed and lives were lost. It accomplished nothing.

The goal had been the ideal of a pope: to capture Jerusalem and establish a new Christendom. But motives became corrupted and confused and the original ideal was lost, and in the end, the people were left disillusioned. Nevertheless, countless thousands joined, and continued to join, the Crusades for reasons ranging from faith to folly. From Little Peter and the First Crusade in 1075 to those who followed Pope Pius II in 1464, there are emperors, knights, thieves and paupers, all with a dream and a unique purpose in mind.

Olivia Coolidge has created an entertaining and often ironic collection of stories of the harrowing triumph and ultimate tragedy of the Crusades in which she successfully avoids taking sides or moralizing, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions. Recommended for high school.