THE CRUSADES: Five Centuries of Holy Wars...

THE CRUSADES: Five Centuries of Holy Wars by Malcolm Billings (Sterling: $14.95, 240 pp., paperback original). Billings argues that the crusading spirit persisted until 1798, when Napoleon took Malta from the Hospitalers. Although this conclusion is debatable, he offers an interesting overview of the campaigns the Latin Christians of Western Europe launched against people of other faiths.

Originally published in 1987 in conjunction with a BBC radio series, “The Crusades” is very much a modern history, with special attention given to the role of women, the mistreatment of European Jews and the destruction of native civilizations in the Americas and the Baltic.