I did like Stark's willingness to probe a bit further into history and explain the Crusades and events leading to them, than to accept what is, in some quarters, a tendency to just pass off the Crusades as another Christian murder spree. He cites different bodies of work, (and some are dated, but which historical writer does not cite some dated material - duh - writing history sometimes does involve old materials?!). He exposes some of the biases or unwillingness of other authors to look at the contextual and cultural factors of the Crusades on both sides. I certainly was not aware of how many Crusades there were, how they were financed, how their mission was portrayed to their participants, and who fought in them. That being said, I felt there was some choppiness in the book. I also wish that there would have been some more maps, or maybe some better ones, included by the author so the reader could get a better perspective on the participant movements and locations of some of the cities/territories mentioned.