"An enjoyable and exuberantly argued book.... Holland combines sound scholarly credentials with a gift for storytelling on a magisterial scale."---The Economist<BR><BR>At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. Weak, fractured, and hemmed in by hostile nations, they saw no future beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ. But when the world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building a Jerusalem on earth.<BR><BR>In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings, the spread of castles and the invention of knighthood. It was one of the most significant departure points in history: the emergence of Western Europe as a distinctive and expansionist power.<BR><BR>"A sweeping and hugely enlightening study of Western history."---The Providence Journal<BR><BR>"A marvelous, enthralling read, [it] gives a lively sense of these turbulent centuries that were so crucial in the making of Western civilization."---The Daily Telegraph (London)