223 pp "This remarkable book chronicles the momentous events of the Fourth Crusade which altered the face of the world. It brings to life the men and their times, the background of the Crusade and its actual chronology, the raising of the Crusade in France and its movement across Europe to Venice. It was in Venice that treacherous dealings embroiled it in one of the most despicable acts in human history and left Eastern Europe open to the eventual Turkish conquest, a conquest which Constantinople had withstood for nine hundred years. In addition, the Crusade set the stage for the later Balkan problem and the inevitable division of Eastern and Western Europe which survives to this day. Contrary to most Western opinion, it also began the westward movement of artistic influence which culminated in the Renaissance. "