With such bestsellers as "A History of God and Islam," Karen Armstrong has
consistently delivered "penetrating, readable, and prescient" ("The New York
Times") works that have lucidly engaged a wide range of religions and religious
issues. In "Buddha" she turns to a figure whose thought is still reverberating
throughout the world 2,500 years after his death. Many know the Buddha only from
seeing countless serene, iconic images. But what of the man himself and the
world he lived in? What did he actually do in his roughly eighty years on earth
that spawned one of the greatest religions in world history? Armstrong tackles
these questions and more