Defenders of the Faith is a thrilling popular history, focusing on the clash of the two great empires of the 16th century, the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. For all its "clash of civilizations" overtones, the encounter was more of an up-jumped border skirmish at Vienna. Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, faced problems in his rear in the form of the Protestant Reformation, King Francis I of France, and a bleeding ulcer of a war in Italy. Suleyman the Magnificent was on the offensive, but despite the largest and most organized army in the world at the time, he lacked the technology to reliably overcome fortified strongpoints, and the logistics to sustain an army in the field in the European winter.

Reston has a talent for bringing the pageantry of the era to life. This was a period of outsized personalities and lavish gestures. The Great Man approach is a little outmodeled, but in an era when a single man could shift armies, and trials of combat between heads of state were proposed, though never finished, it's appropriate. A great detailed look at a period that tends to get subsumed in European history in general.