Book excerpt: The struggle between Islam and the Crusaders comprised a dialogue of cultures on a broad geographic scale and a wide expanse of time, a perennial seesaw of conquest in the West as in the East. Father Burns' pioneering work on Valencia has demonstrated that the inner reality of this sustained confrontation lies as much in the colonial interims as in the battles. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.