"This book is an effort to explode (or at least modify) seven popular myths or misconceptions of the Ccrusades. Despite the seemingly ever-expanding outpouring of first-rate books on the Crusades that has taken place over the past half century, including some fine surveys intended for general audiences, distortions of the crusades seem to be proliferating in all the popular media. These include pseudo-documentaries for TV, big- and small-budget movies, novels, mainstream news reporting, editorials, political speeches by highly visible and influential politicians, the sermons and writings of radical clerics and zealous laity of all three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and textbooks prepared for collegiate and high school students enrolled in Western civilization and world history courses"-- "Seven Myths of the Crusades' rebuttal of the persistent and multifarious misconceptions associated with topics including the First Crusade, anti-Judaism and the Crusades, the crusader states, the Children's Crusade, the Templars and past and present Islamic-Christian relations proves, once and for all, that real history is far more fascinating than conspiracy theories, pseudo-history and myth-mongering. This book is a powerful witness to the dangers of the misappropriation and misinterpretation of the past and the false parallels so often drawn between the Crusades and later historical events ranging from nineteenth-century colonialism to the protest movements of the 1960s to the events of 9/11. This volume's authors have venerable track records in teaching and researching the crusading movement, and anyone curious about the Crusades would do well to start here"--Jessalynn Bird, Dominican University, co-editor of Crusade and Christendom.