By H.W. Crocker III

For 2,000 years, Catholicism -- the largest religion in the world and in the United States -- has shaped global history on a scale unequaled by any other institution.

Triumph offers an accessible, affirmative, and exciting entry into that history. Inside, you'll discover the spectacular story of the Church from Biblical times and the early days of St. Peter -- the first pope -- to Pope John Paul the Great (already a saint), Pope Benedict XVI (a master theologian), and the controversies surrounding Pope Francis.

It is a sweeping drama of Roman legions, great crusades, epic battles, toppled empires, heroic saints, and enduring faith, as well as Dark Age skullduggery, the Inquisition, the Renaissance popes, and the Protestant Revolt.

A classic for twenty years -- now updated and expanded -- Triumph is a brawling, colorful history full of inspiring pageantry and spirited polemic that will exhilarate, amuse, and infuriate as it extols the power and the glory the Catholic Church and the gripping stories of some of its greatest men and women.

• Binding: Paperback
  Pages: 512

H. W. Crocker III is the author of Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church, A 2,000-Year History and Robert E. Lee on Leadership: Executive Lessons in Character, Courage, and Vision, as well as the prize-winning comic novel The Old Limey. He has worked as a journalist, speechwriter for the governor of California, and book editor. He lives near the battlefields of northern Virginia.