Includes bibliographical references.

Greedy barbarians in armor? -- Muslim invaders -- Christendom strikes back -- Western "ignorance" versus Eastern "culture" -- Pilgrimage and persecution -- Enlisting crusaders -- Going East -- Bloody victories -- The crusader kingdoms -- The struggle to defend the kingdoms -- Crusades against Egypt -- Mission abandoned.

In God's Battalions, award-winning author Rodney Stark takes on the long-held view that the Crusades were the first round of European colonialism, conducted for land, loot, and converts by barbarian Christians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. Instead, Stark argues that the Crusades were the first military response to Muslim terrorist aggession.