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A Concise History of the Crusades (Critical Issues in History, 105) [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

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4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Product Description

"'God wills it!' With that cry of medieval knights a new era in European history began. Across Europe a wave of pious enthusiasm led many thousands to leave their homes, family, and friends to march to a distant land in a great struggle for Christ. Yet the crusades were more than simply a holy war. They represent a synthesis of attitudes and values that were uniquely medieval--so medieval, in fact, that the crusading movement is rarely understood today. This book places the crusades within the medieval social, economic, religious, and intellectual environments that gave birth to the movement and nurtured it for centuries. The events of the crusades to Palestine and Europe's periphery are narrated in a clear, concise, and compelling manner. Special attention is also given to the crusades' effects on the Islamic world and the Christian Byzantine East. Also included is a historiographical overview of the subject as well as an up-to-date select biography."


About the Author

Thomas F. Madden is an associate professor of history at Saint Louis University and the co-author of "The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (January 25, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0847694291
  • ISBN-13: 978-0847694297
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #748,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Thomas F. Madden
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65 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Delivers as Promised, March 19, 2002
This book is an excellent "first read" for those with an interest in the Crusades. Thomas Madden's writing is clear and to the point -- um, concise -- and he provides the necessary background when needed (For example, on the rise of Islam). The organization of the book is strictly chronological, making it easy to follow the ebb and flow of the various Crusades. The maps are sufficient to the purpose, though not exceptional. When things get a little complicated -- such as keeping track of the various rulers of the Crusader states -- Madden errs on the side of brevity, to keep the story moving. This allows the reader to take in the sweep of the crusading movement -- the countless errors, massacres, double-crosses, etc. on all sides.

As a sort of "bonus", Madden attempts explain the mindset of the Crusaders -- what was it about the Middle Ages that would cause Europeans to take up arms and leave their homes? Personally, I didn't see this so much as a defense or rationalization of Christianity. (Madden also relates Crusades against Christian "heretics" in Europe.) Others may take a different view. But that's the benefit of the book -- it serves as an exposition for further study...or continued debate.

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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A very un-PC look at history, April 13, 2004
By J. Adams "History buff" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: A Concise History of the Crusades (Critical Issues in History) (Paperback)
For those who have read books about the Crusades written by those who try to find some "balance" between the competing interests of current Middle East territory, this book is a refreshing look at what actually happened. While most of the globe has seen conquest of one form or another, and in some places, many times, this is one book that puts the Crusades in perspective. The Crusades were essentially an attempt to reestablish a Christian presence in the Levant after its conquest by the Islamic forces which swept across Northern Africa and the Middle East after the death of Mohammed. Madden gives us many interesting details of how the Crusades were beaten back by divisions within the Christian community of Europe just as much as they were beaten by the followers of Islam. One of the most intriguing issues is the treatment of how the pagan and Jewish communities were displaced initially by the followers of Christ through conversion to Christianity without force of arms, followed by armed invasions of Islamists who took possession of the area by way of the sword instead of by way of persuasion. The Crusades were essentially a movement to take back these formerly Christian enclaves the only way they could, through force of arms inasmuch as the Koran and its interpreters and enforcers prohibits any kind of freedom of religion as we know it in the West today. It is one of the reasons that there are no Christian churches allowed in Saudi Arabia today, where even observing a Christian service is prohibited. A fact which is always glossed over by Islamic apologists who misrepresent history today. This book has a lot of history, without the stridency of Trifkovic's "The Sword of the Prophet" which is an equally good, if not better, book.
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32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking Post-Moderns Head-on, July 5, 2004
This review is from: A Concise History of the Crusades (Critical Issues in History) (Paperback)
Madden presents an excellent and objective case for the real foundations of the Crusades. The two Crusading pillars were, first, a military response to invading Muslims and, second, an overwhelming commitment to theological presuppositions. Medieval Europe was committed to a universal standard of truth. They really believed in souls eternally perishing or eternally flourishing. These ontological and epistemological underpinnings came to fruition in the defense of Europe known as the Crusades. Most of all, this book returns to the post-"post-modern" commitment to real, objective, and honest scholarship. Post-modernism perverts all that it touches, to include history. Madden addresses this perversion head on with accurate historical data that demolishes post-modernism's strangling of the truth.
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