In this illustrated magazine, Josh, star basketball player at a small-town high school, has it all - looks, brains and talent. Today is his 16th birthday. His sweetheart, Casey, wants to give him a present he'll never forget. However, Casey's gift will change their lives forever, forcing them on a path between three possible futures. What will they choose? What would you choose?

This is the credo and seminal text of the movement which was later characterized as liberation theology. The book burst upon the scene in the early seventies, and was swiftly acknowledged as a pioneering and prophetic approach to theology which famously made an option for the poor, placing the exploited, the alienated, and the economically wretched at the centre of a programme where "the oppressed and maimed and blind and lame" were prioritized at the expense of those who either maintained the status quo or who abused the structures of power for their own ends. This powerful, compassionate and radical book attracted criticism for daring to mix politics and religion in so explicit a manner, but was also welcomed by those who had the capacity to see that its agenda was nothing more nor less than to give "good news to the poor", and redeem God's people from bondage.

There is no shortage of stories about the crusades, or of biographies of those who played the leading roles in this, the greatest epic of the Middle Ages. But there has been no book in which we could find, recreated, the way of life, the world view, the everyday social organization of those who tempted adventure. They were kings and paupers, barons, clerks, women, and merchants. Some were driven by their faith, others by the spirit of conquest, and some by a hunger for greatness and wealth.

Régine Pernoud presents for us a living picture in which we can view, first hand, the awe of the Christians as they beheld the Muslim world, the myriad ordeals they sustained while traveling for years in unknown lands, and the remarkable way in which they managed to adapt, to colonize, to erect churches and fortresses, and to abide for centuries in the face of an adversary far greater in number. Here, an unrecognized page in our history finally reveals itself. A great historian and writer brings this colorful period alive.

Régine Pernoud, a renowned French archivist and historian, is among the greatest medievalists of our times, and the success of her books has helped to bring the Middle Ages closer to us. Among her numerous works are Those Terrible Middle Ages! and Women in the Days of the Cathedrals.