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The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain Hardcover – February 22, 2016

by Dario Fernandez-Morera (Author)

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A finalist for World Magazine's Book of the Year!

Scholars, journalists, and even politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain—"al-Andalus"—as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: it is a myth.

In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise shines light on hidden history by drawing on an abundance of primary sources that scholars have ignored, as well as archaeological evidence only recently unearthed. This supposed beacon of peaceful coexistence began, of course, with the Islamic Caliphate's conquest of Spain. Far from a land of religious tolerance, Islamic Spain was marked by religious and therefore cultural repression in all areas of life and the marginalization of Christians and other groups—all this in the service of social control by autocratic rulers and a class of religious authorities.

The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise provides a desperately needed reassessment of medieval Spain. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity," Fernández-Morera sets the historical record straight—showing that a politically useful myth is a myth nonetheless.

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Editorial Reviews

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"Shows in meticulous detail . . . that intolerance, segregation, formal inequality, and brutality were the order of the day [in Islamic Spain]." —The New Criterion"[Fernández-Morera] must be commended for daring to wade into this hazardous arena. He has come well-armed: his The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise has 95 pages of notes, and the lionisers of political correctness will not find it easy to penetrate chinks in his bibliographical armour of primary and secondary sources, many not published in English. In an exhilarating and unput-downable read, Fernández-Morera debunks the fashionable myth that Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together (convivencia) under 'tolerant' Muslim rule. . . . World-class academics—hailing from Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Princeton, London, Oxford—look like fools in their apologetics for jihad."—Standpoint"Numerous books propagandize for Islam by calling Muslim rule in Spain during the Middle Ages a golden age of tolerance. Darío Fernández-Morera's The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain (ISI Books) cuts against PR for Islam by giving specific examples of rulers cutting off heads or applying burning candles to the faces of sexual slaves." —World magazine, naming The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise a finalist for Book of the Year"Often a work of historical revisionism is a dubious exercise in discovering trendy, hidden agendas with little bearing on the actual record of the past. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is decidedly not such a study and is instead a bracing remedy to a good deal of the academic pabulum that passes for scholarship on Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations." —Middle East Quarterly"A first-rate work of scholarship that demolishes the fabrication of the multiethnic, multiconfessional convivencia in Spain under Muslim rule. The book is also an exposé of the endemic problems of contemporary Western academe. . . . Space does not allow us to list all of the fables—some bizarre, others laughable, most of them infuriating—that Fernández-Morera dispatches with unassailable logic and ruthless efficiency." —Chronicles"I am in awe of The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise. . . . This book is an intellectual boxing match. The author shreds not just one opponent, but a series of intellectual bigots, prostitutes, and manipulators of the common man. . . . He uses research and objective facts to make his case. Nothing could be more transgressive in academia today." —FrontPage Magazine"The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise prompts readers to rethink their traditional notion of Islamic Spain. Fernández-Morera shows that it was not a harmonious locus of tolerance. Paying special attention to primary sources, he documents how Islamic Spain was in fact dominated by cultural repression and marginalization. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is essential reading. It will soon find its place on the shelves of premier academic institutions and in the syllabi of pioneering scholars." —Antonio Carreño, W. Duncan McMillan Family Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, Brown University "I could not put this book down. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise constitutes a watershed in scholarship. Throughan unbiased and open-minded reading of the primary sources, Fernández-Morera brilliantly debunks the myths that for so long have dominated Islamic historiography and conventional wisdom. We were waiting for this great breakthrough to come to light, and Fernández-Morera has done it. Bravo!" —Raphael Israeli, Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Chinese History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Fernández-Morera examines the underside of Islamic Spain, a civilization usually considered a model of dynamism and vigor. Through the study of primary sources, he questions the historiographic and intellectual view of the superiority of that civilization. This is an intelligent reinterpretation of a supposed paradise of convivencia." —Julia Pavón Benito, Professor of Medieval Spanish History, University of Navarra"Desperately, desperately needed as a counter to the mythology that pervades academia on this subject. This book sheds much-needed light on current debates about the relationship between the West and Islam. It displays rare good sense and a willingness to face truth that is all too often absent in discussions of this era." —Paul F. Crawford, Professor of Ancient and Medieval History, California University of Pennsylvania"A splendid book. This sober and hard-hitting reassessment demolishes the myths of religious tolerance and multiculturalism that have hopelessly romanticized the precarious coexistence and harsh realities of medieval Spain under Muslim rule. Well documented and persuasively argued, this book is must-reading as a window into the lessons of the past." —Noël Valis, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Yale University"Fernández-Morera takes on the long-overdue topic of assessing medieval Muslim Spain's reputation for ethnic pluralism, religious tolerance, and cultural secularism. Finding this view based on a 'culture of forgetting,' he documents the reign of strict sharia in Andalusia, with its attendant discrimination against non-Muslims and subjugation of women. So much for the charming fantasy of open-mindedness and mutual respect." —Daniel Pipes, historian of Islam and publisher of the Middle East Quarterly"Brilliant . . . A thorough and entertaining study, as masterful as it is pointed." —Catholic Culture"Reveals the awesome and awful truth camouflaged by many in the West who have written apologies for Muslim-ruled Andalusia . . . More than 90 pages of footnotes to contemporary sources in their original languages make his thesis unassailable." —New English Review

About the Author

Darío Fernández-Morera is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University. A former member of the National Council on the Humanities, he holds a BA from Stanford University, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from Harvard University. He has authored several books and many articles on cultural, literary, historical, and methodological issues in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ ISI Books; 1st edition (February 22, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 376 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1610170954
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1610170956
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #247,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #80 in History of Islam
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4.5 515 ratings

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J Porter

This is a Great book for anyone who wants a more unbiased version of history of the Islamic occupation of Spain.

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2017

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First off let me start off by saying that while this book is excellent in its presentation of facts and the authors approach of using unbiased primary sources, its not TOTALLY unbiased, the author clearly has an axe to grind but more on that later. The fact is that Islamic Spanish history is often upheld by academics, BBC Documentaries, lay people, and especially Muslim sympathizers(Islamic apologists, Arabists, Afrocentrics etc) as the pinnacle of Medieval European civilization, a place where Arab, Berber and black African Muslims not only ruled hillbilly bumkin white Europeans but taught them the basics of civilization and that this culture preserved the classical Greco-Roman culture lost during the dark ages but was the catalyst for the Renaissance that brought an end to the dark ages. While this idea is problematic on many levels even to the lay historian with a very basic level of research, the idea still has strong support and this book not only challenges this theory but utterly destroys it with primary sources(many of them Islamic) and the archeological record.
The main myth this book destroys is the idea that Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in some harmonious Islamic super state. The fact is that the Spanish Muslim were some of the most committed Muslims to practice the Maliki school of Islamic Jurisprudence which relies on the Koran and Hadiths(Sharia) for its rulings. The Muslim rulers regulated Spanish Christians to second class and often as third class citizens. Dhimmitude is the dirty secret of the Islamic world, the elephant in the room that is often ignored by the admiring historians who publish books and articles on the supposed advanced and tolerant culture of Islamic Spain. The very concept and etymology of "Dhimmi" or "protected" is controversial,(protected from who?) and seems eerily similar to the protection racquets of the Mafia and other organized crime syndicates. The next myth, one that I didnt even realize was a thing due to how silly and not based in reality or reliable sources, is that the conquest of Spain by Islamic invaders was relatively peaceful. Next is the idea that Muslims conquered a decaying backward hillbilly Gothic wasteland and created a brilliant Muslim paradise. The fact is that the Visigoths were one of the Barbarian tribes who not only embraced Classical Roman culture but fused it with their own culture and flourished in it creating their own laws, Lex Visigothorum, Architecture and Art. The Invading Muslim Arabs and Berbers on the other hand came from nomadic desert cultures, many of whom still live in primitive structures in their native lands. The Moors relied heavily on Christian and Jewish artists and the Visigothic culture that they conquered to create their paradise of Al-Andalus, and when they did experience a sophisticated culture it was often in-spite and at odds with Islam and the ruling Islamic clerics of the time, forcing the Ulema to call in more fundamentalist and primitive Muslims from Africa to invade and destroy the luke warm tolerant Muslims.
Now the author does try to present his sources in an unbiased light, his narration at times takes on a sarcastic tone. Now Im not bothered by it but it clearly points to the authors feelings on the subject and where he leans. All in all I enjoyed the book, it was easy to read and the subject was clearly outlined and presented with facts. Its a great read to anyone who wants the truth.

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K.S.

The Standard of Excellence & A Must Read Book!

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2018

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The Standard of Excellence & A Must Read Book!

“The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise” is a wake-up call written in a silver-tongued and nitpicking style by Professor Darío Fernández-Morera, Ph.D. Harvard University, who teaches courses in Golden Age and Medieval Spanish culture, literature, and history at Northwestern University. He is an outstanding and honest scholar.

This book not only demolishes all fabrications and figments of the academic imagination about Christians, Jews and Muslims living in a pluralist Islamic Golden Age but also puts on the map a fact-based account of a medieval Spain largely controlled by Muslims that has been hidden by the politically correct academia and media establishment.

The author stands by the idea of searching for the truth of the matter, wherever it may lead, even if the search uncovers unpleasant facts and naked struggles for power, an approach advocated and exemplified by the brilliant Italian political and cultural thinker Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 - 21 June 1527), whose well known motto opens and informs the book: “it has seemed to me better to go directly to the truth of the matter rather than to the imagining of it” and by the Muslim political thinker Ibn Ẓafar al-Ṣiqillī (1104-1170/72): “[priority must be given] to what is real rather than approximation,” (p. 9).

The book comprises 17 pages of an excellent introduction, 223 pages of facts-supported narrative, generous quotes from primary and secondary Christian, Muslim, and Jewish sources, and a methodically documented narrative with historiographical accuracy, verified and validated by 95 pages of explanatory endnotes and detailed references and 11 pages of primary and secondary bibliographical entries.

Fernández-Morera challenges academia’s politically correct re/interpretation of the past shaped by the present-day ideological mission of the progressives. He shows the truth of the invasion of Hispania by Muslim-Arab-led Berbers, and unmasks, among other things, the academics’ obliviousness to Christian and Islamic testimonies from al-Andalus in their academically opinionated and misleading research that obfuscates the obvious truth --which should be at the heart of every high--principled researcher--about medieval Spain from the Fall of the Western Roman Empire until the Age of Discovery.

The author provides ample evidence from both primary and secondary Christian, Muslim and Jewish sources to demonstrate that: “By the end of the twelfth century, as a result of flight (or “migration”) to Christian lands, expulsions to North Africa, executions, and conversions, the Christian dhimmi population had largely disappeared from al-Andalus. When Christians entered Granada in 1492, there were no Christian dhimmis in the city.” Though very few Christians were left by the end of the twelfth century, Christian civilization had been effectively destroyed in Islamic Spain long before the end of the twelfth century.

Using archeological and textual evidence from great Spanish and French scholars, Fernández-Morera shows that a brilliant Hispano-Roman-Visigoth civilization existed in Christian Spain before the Muslim conquest and that this civilization was destroyed by Muslims, who eventually replaced it with their own. He also shows the cultural connections between this Christian Visigoth Spain and the Christian Eastern (or Greek) Roman empire, and how Visigoths assimilated to this civilization, in contrast to Muslims, who destroyed it after taking what they found of practical use in it.

He brings to light that: “all too often, books in English do not show a mastery of the work of Spanish scholars.” (p. 9). Too many meritorious Spanish researchers and their investigations, which this book draws upon (Felipe Maillo Salgado, Serafin Fanjul, Luis A. García Moreno, etc.) have been ignored by many academics.

So have been great French scholars, this book cites repeatedly such as: Dominique Urvoy, Jacques Fontaine, Christine Pellisandri, Charles-Emmanuel Dufourcq, Marie Therese Urvoy and many others.

That during their control of large parts of medieval Espanna (he shows that the name España is an evolved form of Hispania, then Spania and then Espanna) from 710 to 1492, Muslims enslaved or tyrannized and kept under their thumb by means of Jihad and of sharia law the Christian population has not been acknowledged, and has been a fact glossed over by many university “scholars” for the sake of their ideologically or self-interested driven Weltanschaung about the era of Moorish supremacy in medieval Islamic Spain.

Fernández-Morera warns readers: “be cautious and keep in mind the differences that exist between the medieval and the modern worlds of Islam, Judaism and Christianity before trying to find reassuring or disturbing similarities between the two. And [the book] it rejects all anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, and anti-Christian viewpoints. Or, as modern critical jargon would put it: readers should keep in mind that the texts examined are ‘historically situated cultural constructs.’” (p. 10).

The use of the sources unveiled by Fernández-Morera about so called “tolerant Muslim culture” and “pluralism” involves a sound methodology where the truth value of a historical account or a juridical statement increases when antagonistic sources agree on its veracity; thus in a narrative where “both Muslim and Christian sources mention a story that, even if apocryphal, illustrates the knowledge of the tactical use of terror in psychological warfare. Shortly after the Islamic forces landed, the flesh of the cadavers of some Christians killed in battle were boiled in large cauldrons under the sight of terrified Christian prisoners, who became convinced that the Muslims were cannibals.” (p. 37).

We learn from the primary sources that Musa, the supreme leader of the Islamic conquest, “burned any city that resisted, crucified the nobility and the older men,’ and ‘cut into pieces the young men and the infants,’” (p. 38). “A priest leading a Christian community asked of the Muslims warriors what they wanted. The priest was then told that he had ‘three options; either Islam or Jizyah or the sword.’” (p. 47). Afterwards when Musa wrote to his caliph, he described the conquest as ‘not a conquest, but the Judgment Day.’” (p. 48).

Islamic law subjugating Christians was clear: [The Jew and the Christian]: “they must on the contrary be abhorred and shunned and should not be greeted with the formula, ‘Peace be with you,’ for the devil has gained mastery over them and has made them forget the name of God. They are the devil’s party, ‘and indeed the devil’s party are the losers.’” [(Qur’an, 57: 22), p. 113]. “In 919 the head judge of tolerant Umayyad Córdoba invoked the punishment that contemporary sharia law prescribed against a Christian woman accused and found guilty of having said publicly that Jesus was God and that Muhammad was a liar who pretended to be a prophet: ‘whoever deprecates Allah, praised be Allah, or deprecates his Messenger, peace be upon him, be he a Muslim or an infidel, he must be killed and must be allowed to repent.’” (p. 125). According to the early-tenth-century writer Ibn al-Faqil “Arabs in Iraq were superior to the Slavs and the blacks because the sun cooked them just right: the Slavs were undercooked and therefore had a color between ‘blond, buff, blanched, and leprous,’ while the blacks were overcooked by the sun and therefore ‘overdone in the womb until they are burned, so that the child comes out something between black, murky, malodorous, stinking, and crinkly-haired, with uneven limbs, deficient minds and depraved passions, such as the Zanj, the Ethiopians, and other blacks who resemble them. The Iraqis are neither half-baked dough nor burned crust but between them.’” (p. 165).

“A Muslim who raped a free Christian woman must be lashed; a Christian who raped a free Muslim woman must be killed. Whoever calumniated a Muslim must be flogged, but whoever calumniated a Christian was not flogged. Whereas a Christian was allowed to convert to Islam, a Muslim was forbidden, under punishment of death, to convert to a different faith.” (pp. 210-211).

Citing a Muslim source from the Umayyad period (661-750), this book shows that one of the main exports of Umayyad al-Andalus was slaves, that most white eunuchs in the world came from Spain, and that blond women from Christian lands were the most desired sexual slaves. We also learn that all Umayyad rulers descended from white sexual slaves and as a result many of these rulers were blond or red haired and even blue-eyed, as was ‘Abd al-Raḥmān III, by name Al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh (Arabic: “Victor for the Religion of Allah,” born January 891 and died October 15, 961, Córdoba), who tinted his hair black to look more Arabic.

My question to all politically correct scholars is: does it look like a land of tolerance or terror? No wonder that you do not say that the evidence that he cites from juridical, historical, and religious sources from Christians, Muslims and Jews is false, but try instead to distract potential readers of this book by attacking his credentials or his motives, in the sort of variations on the ad hominem attack that those who have no arguments against the evidence presented against their beliefs attempt to use it in order to deflect the narrative by attacking the messenger of the bad news.

With good sense, Fernández-Morera fairly asks the following question neglected by politically correct academic professors and fake news: “How can Hispano-Roman-Visigoth Spain be portrayed as a land of ‘Dark Ages gloom and depression’ while Islamic Spain is hailed as ‘the pride and the ornament of the world, the most illustrious part of the earth? Why has the history of both Islamic Spain and its Hispano-Roman-Visigoth predecessor been so distorted?” (pp. 81-82).

After all, more astonishing are some “politically correct inventors” who either deliberately or because of shoddy research missed by a mile archeological discoveries, primary sources, great secondary sources by excellent scholars, first-rate analysis and the train of thought of the research achieved by Professor Fernández-Morera.

As a result of my examination of this book I attest to Professor Fernández-Morera’s integrity and endorse his academic honesty, intellectual bravery and logic to genuinely speak the truth about medieval Hispania, based on his reliable knowledge of history and the Christian and Arabic primary sources against the pro-Islamic politically correct nonsense, dishonesty and disinformation, disseminated by the Western academe, which misrepresented the persuasive evidence and continues to go along with a bogus and disingenuous explanation of “convivencia,” to advocate their phony “multicultural harmony” inside Islam, and to humanize the barbarian acts, propagating their fake news about a peaceful and tolerant Muslim civilization in the Iberian Peninsula when in point of fact Medieval Islamic Spain was anything but toleration.

I believe that this contribution to understanding the truth about the myth of tolerance and pluralism in the “Golden Age” of Islam is a must-read book in schools, colleges and universities instead of the unscientific and ideologically driven nonsense invented by some scholars, among them Islamic Studies as well as medieval studies experts. These experts, believing to have a monopoly on the study of Islamic Spain by reason of their specialization, have deprived us for too long of access to the reality of the conquest, occupation of medieval Spain, and the destruction of Christianity in Islamic Spain for centuries until the Christians managed to reconquer the land in a political and military effort probably unequalled in history: the Spanish reconquest of the land from Islamic claws in a struggle that lasted several centuries.

The author deserves our gratitude for setting the record straight, demolishing the lies about the fantasized Islamic Golden Age, presenting irrefutable facts, documenting the realistic picture of Islamic history, and exposing the unhistorical fantasy, produced by a politically correct academia by amply quoting the academics’ own foolish writings, and risking the ad hominem attacks that those endangered and evidently terrified by his research throw against him. It must be particularly irksome to so many specialists in Islamic “studies” that the book calls attention to the lavish and compromising amounts of money given to centers for Islamic “Studies” by Muslim governments and benefactors such as the disgraced Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose name many Islamic “studies” centers in many universities bear.

My congratulations to Professor Darío Fernández-Morera.

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S. McQueen

At last, the truth about Islamic Spain- and a great read

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2016

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Bravo! A work of genius--- and a surprisingly easy read that I couldn't put down. Boy, does this author set the record straight. For too long have academicians fantasized about Al-Andalus and its happy Christian villages and enlightened Islamic rulers. The sources simply don't bear out the multi-culturalist fantasy, and this book proves it. Use of contemporary sources, including Christian, Hebrew and Islamic legal treatises, make this work humanly accessible and full of surprises, while supporting Dr. Fernandez-Morera's arguments as strongly as the stone foundations of the Christian West --- and East--- destroyed by the Islamic invaders, whose atrocities are mirrored in today's world. This work calls for a re-examination of what could have been, had the nascent Hispano-Roman-Visigothic culture not been interrupted by the invasions. The folly of American academia is exposed by quotes of their own foolish writings, which are systematically dismantled by close examination of the truth of daily life under Sharia law in "Al-Andalus," with its ethnic cleansing, racism, massacres and depravity. There are some real gems about the reality of Sephardic life. And finally, an American academic incorporates the latest Spanish scholarship on the subject. Dr. Fernandez--Morera's vision is unclouded by any political agenda and his scholarship is immaculate. You will keep reading the 95 pages of footnotes because the notes too are fascinating. A work of art--- Bravo! Bravo!

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Dr Afonso Ramires(A.R.)

O "Paraíso" Andaluz revisitado

Reviewed in Spain on December 12, 2023

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As opiniões dos autores não-ibéricos, nomeadamente de língua francesa e inglesa, sem grande acesso às fontes históricas originais podem sair distorcidas por ignorância ou por opinião pessoal acerca de certos factos que se prendem mais com a actualidade do que com o período histórico a que se refere o livro, como o autor aponta.

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Jaime Contro

Los mitos del paraíso islámico

Reviewed in Mexico on July 1, 2017

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De una forma amena y muy bien documentada, descubre las verdades "incómodas" o "no correctas políticamente" de la ciega soicedad anticirstiana de hoy y a quien el aterra criticar al islam. Los europeos del siglo XX y XXI, al negar sus raíces cristianas, en un futuro no lejano se darán cuenta que ya nos son Europa, se habrán convertido en Eurabia islámica.

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Katharina

Mal etwas anderes/ Well written

Reviewed in Germany on May 27, 2018

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Es ist ein recht gut geschriebenes Buch mit vielen Querverweisen, insbesondere auch zu Quellen. Ich kann es jedem empfehlen der selbst gern kritisch liest und nicht alles glaubt was geschrieben wird. Wie bei vielen Büchern dieser Art muss auch hier der Kopf eingeschalten sein, denn häufig wird es dann doch sehr polemisch und manchmal bin ich mir nicht sicher ob es der Humor des Autors ist oder seine tatsächliche Meinung. ABER es ist tatsächlich mal ein Buch welches nicht den alltbekannten Aussagen des Paradises in Al'Andalus hinterherrennt und diese wiederkäut.

The book is well written - on times rather polemic though. Still very recommendable if you yourself are a critical reader and like critically written texts. The big plus are the numerous amounts of sources, primary and secondary.

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Martin Land

turns the accepted and insubstantial dogmas on their head

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2017

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This is a magisterial work. Too often the subject of medievIal Spain , whether the early post-Roman Visigoth kingdom , the colonial dominion of Islamic empires , or the emerging high medieval kingdoms that formed modern Spain , has been viewed through the lense of Enlightenment or Protestant animus against Catholic Spain . This created bias. Worse has been a thoroughgoing ignorance of primary sources and archaeology. Worse again has been a mendacious and selective rendering of the Arabic sources . This work brings forth a wealth of erudition to contradict the tenuous ideological constructs that form the accepted version of medieval 'Iberian' history. Even in it's tangential discussion of the Eastern Roman Empire and it's influence (Anathema to so many self interested academic cliques in the west - who to spite their rivals , educators and defenders in the east have for centuries denigrated both their preservation of the civilisation of the ancients , and their heroic sacrifices before those who would then as now see the west trampled into the dust ) I will not pretend to neutrality. In this time I would recommend the Athenian ciitizenship law of the radical democracy , which impelled all citizens to choose their side and fight their corner in staseis. Those that lost could be penalized but forgiven - those that abstained should at least be killed or at worst exiled. Read this book. Examine it's sources and it's arguments. Criticise them as sharply as you are able with honesty. This work will prove resilient. I hope it is will open new ground for honest historic research and presentation.

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Paolo Rossi

Da non perdere

Reviewed in Italy on April 23, 2017

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Testo molto attendibile e basato su uno studio attento degli archivi. Riesce a separare i fatti dalle opinioni e quindi risulta estremamente interessante per gli appassionati di storia e non di fiction....

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