Book Description
How have the crusades contributed to Islamist rage and terrorism today? Were the crusades the Christian equivalent of modern jihad? In this sweeping yet crisp history, Thomas F. Madden offers a brilliant and compelling narrative of the crusades and their contemporary relevance. Placing all the major crusades within their medieval social, economic, religious, and intellectual environments, Madden explores the uniquely medieval world that led untold thousands to leave their homes, family, and friends to march in Christ's name to distant lands. From Palestine and Europe's farthest reaches, each crusade is recounted in clear, concise narrative. The author gives special attention as well to the crusades' effects on the Islamic world and the Christian Byzantine East.
Customer Reviews:
Gained a perspective.......2007-05-26
This was the first book I ever read about the Crusades. I felt I needed some historical background for the Christian-Muslim tension that we see all around the world today. This book presented the subject in an unbias way that left me feeling I could draw some informed opinions on the subject. To be frank, some of my conclusions were not what I expected them to be prior to reading the book. I am not a good reader. It is a struggle for me to get through a book. I looked forward to reading this book every evening until I finished. It left me wanting to learn more about the subject. One last thing...it is only 225 pages and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the subject.
Understand the Crusades from a Medieval Mindset.......2007-03-24
Following September 11th, 2001 and George W. Bush's idiotic claim that the war in Iraq was a "crusade", Westerners looked to the past to make sense of what is currently happening in the world; a clash of East and West. Most, if not all, books on the Crusades take a liberal enlightenment stance of attacking the West and portraying the Crusaders as warmongerers who were only interested in their personal wealth and power. The reason for this outlook is because those books were influenced by authors and research done during the Imperial Age of both Europe and America which had overtones of the West imposing it's will onto the East which authors compared to the Crusades.
Madden's book takes a very balanced and scholarly approach to the Crusades; instead of adding on to the list of historically and socially flawed texts about the subject, he shows in a very simple and easy to understand way the mind set of both Medieval Europe and Islam. By doing this he doesn't fall victim to trying to explain the purpose of the Crusades using the modern secular mindset but the pious devotion to God found in both Christian and Muslim camps which makes understanding them easier. Once the reader is acquainted with the Medieval world, Madden does take an unbiased secular approach to what the Crusades were and the impact, if any, they have on current state of affairs.
With a little over 200 DETAILED pages Madden does a thorough job explaining the finer points of the Crusade without overbearing the reader with a list of dates and endless family genealogies. I highly recommend this book to those who are looking for an introduction into the complex subject of the Crusades or just to get a concise overview of what they were about without ploughing through thousands of pages of other texts. This is my second book on the Crusades, James Reston's Jr's "Warrior's of God" being the first (it's a closer look at Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade; Reston, like others in the past, is biased towards the East/Islam, but only in the introduction of the end of the 2nd Crusade, the bias surprisingly disappears after that, great book highly recommend it).
One thing you'll definitely get from this book is that the Crusades were not black and white, good vs. evil, West vs. Islam; too many factors are involved to make it so. Get the book and learn that whatever you may see in the media about what is happening in the world today has some sort of agenda.
Next up: Runciman's 3 volume work (although it is dated and is somewhat flawed in thinking) and Tyerman's "God's War".
not objective.......2007-02-07
Good book if you throw objectivity away and look at history with a sentimental eye rather than a neutral mind. I was dissapointed in the way the book was written.
An easy introduction.......2007-01-28
This book is great for beginners. The writing is smooth and lively, and the author doesn't overwhelm you with too much useless information. Once you're done with this book, if you're interested, you should move on to the books by Jonathan Riley-Smith (we're using them at school). His books contain more information but they are more difficult; I would not recommend them for beginners. You should start with this.
Both Thomas Madden and Jonathan Riley-Smith take a refreshingly balanced approach. They do not paint the Crusades and Imperialism with the same brush, as if the crusaders were just a bunch of greedy European Christians out to plunder innocent Muslim lands. This is currently the popular view; but it confuses the greed of secular imperialists with the piety of devout crusaders. Furthermore, it assumes that Islam spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Spain 'innocently.'
Instead, the Crusades were armed pilgrimages to the holy land with three main objectives: a) to come to the aid of Eastern Christians who were under threat by Muslim forces, b) to recapture some of the territory which was recently conquered by Muslim forces, and c) to improve relations with the Eastern Church. Unfortunately, the Crusades eventually failed in all three of these areas.
Once a crusade was launched it was difficult to control, and too many atrocities took place along the way. Two common examples of such atrocities are the massacring of Jews in Germany during the First Crusade, and the sacking of the city of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Nevertheless, these atrocities were never the initial intentions of the Crusades. Thomas Madden explains all of this in a very fair way. He neither shies away from the ugliness of these atrocities nor uses them to justify an anti-Catholic/pro-secular rant.
A breath of fresh air.
Lots of information in a small form factor.......2007-01-22
After seeing the great reviews for this book, I picked it up to try to gain a better understanding of the Crusades and how it may be related to current events. I was kind of shell shocked with all of the details this book throws at you. But after getting deeper into the book, it was actually a great read. From the disappointments of the Crusades to the identification of the misunderstanding that often result from historical misconceptions, this book packs a lot of information in a concise and interesting format.
Book Description
The crusades were a quintessentially medieval phenomenon, which both defined and reflected the unique social forces that characterized Europe in the Middle Ages. In this fascinating book, Thomas F. Madden places the crusades within the medieval social, economic, religious, and intellectual environments that gave birth to the movement and nurtured it for centuries. He also examines the impact of the Crusades on the Islamic societies which were their primary target, as well as discussing their implications for the Christian Byzantine East. This book will provide students with an up-to-date and accessible introduction to both the Crusades and medieval history. Visit our website for sample chapters!
Customer Reviews:
God's Warriors.......2007-04-06
The momentous campaign of 1187 when the Muslims captured Jerusalem after the Christian army had been destroyed led to Richard I's 3rd Crusade to restore the kingdom of Jerusalum with the expertise of the Knight Templars. A modern monument to the Templars stands proud outside the Church of New Temple in London. The legendary knights of old are mounted on one horse; the knights are primitive and small in comparison with the magnigicent horse which has a knotted tail. The two Knight Templars on one horse signifies that religious warriors united in the service of Christ. It shows the brothers' charity in helping other knights on the battlefield. The seal of the Templars has this on one side and the Church of Holy Sepulchre as the central shrine of the Christian faith.
Britain is ahead of the other countries of God's Warriors in collections of relics from that area with an array of swords in The Tower of London. With the rise of the Ottoman empire during the Crusades in late 14th century, boys aged between eight and fifteen years from Christian villages were forcibly conscripted and taken away to be trained as military slaves, according to the Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades. The first Crusade took place in 1095; 2nd, 1147-9; 3rd, 1189-92; 4th, 1204 and 5th, 1217-21.
The Knights Templars protect the Christian holy places: where Jesus had lived, died and risen from the dead. The Holy Wars of the past were for a purpose as compared with the Iran and Iraq invasions by the United States today. Here you read about the real West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and the kibbutz communes built up after the 1948 War when the Israelis destroyed the Crusade sites as retaliation of their lands being taken from them. THe so-called Crusader Citadel in Tiberius is an 18th century structure although a real Crusader church has been unearthed in an Arab town. In 1131, King Alfonso I of Aragon in Spain bequeathed his kingdom to the Templars; in Barcelona, Spain's historic church stands empty, a beautiful shell left after the reign of a dictator. But in 1134, Cyprus and Portugal were a part of the Crusade history. The book Carlos sent to me about the fabulous cathedral which was never rebuilt is Spain's heritage, their remembrance of the large part they served as God's warriors during the Crusades.
There were no Crusades in America, though the early leaders from George Washington on down to celebrities of our time, and minor politicos were Masons, a form of Knight Templars, a religious order of the Latin Church with duties to society. The U. S. A. has artifacts scattered from one end of the country: Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., to the other in Los Angeles. Modern Israel where Fanny Cohen visited her daughter who lived in a kibbutz has a Rockefeller Museum; Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Rome, Istanful and the Vatican City all have visible relics, but Spain has only that magnificent Cathedral at Barcelona. Tennessee is deficient in religious action against the heathen residents for the most part caused by whiskey and moonshine. The whole region of downtown has reverted to that lifestyle. Where are the crusaders when you need them?
Good survey of a huge subject.......2005-12-16
If you are a Crusades scholar, this book will be laughable to you. I, however, am a neophyte who wished to get a framework to begin my studies of the Crusades. I had tried several more scholarly (read obscure) books from my local library, and was afraid that I was an idiot who could never understand this turbulent, but suddenly relevant period. This book is an easy read, and I feel like I have a good overall understanding of the subject. Now, I am excited to concentrate more attention on specific periods.
Primer On Crusades Corrected.......2005-07-27
The Crusades are truly one of those most misrepresented and misunderstood items commonly brought up in normal people's conversation as though they knew what they were truly about.
Madden is a scholar who has researched this topic, and can begin to inform us to consider something other about this history than what is commonly put out in public by politicians and others with something to gain by misrepresenting the Crusades.
The Crusades are typically presented in the media in the same vein as the Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition as prime examples of Christians inhumanity. Madden dispels this with likely the most misrepresented part of the Crusades, that of whether they were offensive or defensive. The historical evidence not filtered by modern agendas is that they were defensive, meant to simply take back Christian lands that had been overcome by raiders from other expansionist countries, i.e. Rome and Turks.
Madden's book is great for the non-scholarly in that he takes comlex data such as leaders, and distills it down to readable, interesting prose. References are available for more detailed investigation, many of which Dr. Madden has authored.
Highly recommended for that the person who wants to speak not from ignorance on sources with a bias, and begin to view the Crusades in a far truer historical light.
Excellent Introduction to the Crusades.......2005-03-19
This is a very readable and accessible "Reader's Digest" version of the history of the crusading movement that emerged in Medieval Europe during the late 10th century. Madden is a recognized medieval scholar who teaches at Saint Louis University, and who has authored or edited several other works on the Crusades. In just 249 pages Madden does an excellent job of navigating his reader through the complex web of political entanglements and considerations that occasionally resulted in behavior that could hardly be stranger if it were fiction. Misconceptions about the crusaders and their motivations are addressed in the light of more recent scholarship, and Madden also challenges the conclusion that the Crusades were ultimately a failure. This is a macro cultural and political look at the Crusades. Anyone looking for specifics on tactics and individual battles, or details on arms and armor, should look elsewhere.
There are 14 maps scattered throughout and a short glossary of terms. A handful of black and white photographs of various ruins from the era are also thrown in, but they are so few one wonders why they even bothered. One very helpful addition is a select bibliography that contains a brief survey on Crusade scholarship and the strengths and weaknesses of some of the major works on the subject. This is an excellent book for anyone looking for a balanced introduction to the Crusades. It will leave you wanting more.
Where is the "gripping narrative"?.......2004-12-09
Others who have reviewed this book have found something I never did. I bought this book due to the rave reviews it has received. I won't go so far as to say the book was a disappointment for me, but I was expecting more. The back dust jacket praises Madden's "gripping narrative" but I couldn't find it.
This book is laden with names, places, dates and statistics, but gives very little in the way of content. What I mean by that is, I believe it is possible to editorialize with analytical descriptions of what took place without compromising the integrity of the event. When you read something like "Army A and Army B met on this date at this place. Army A was soundly defeated and lost X number of men." That leaves a lot of room for improvement and does little to hold the readers interest.
Perhaps I am wrongly making the assumption that most people have a fairly basic knowledge of what took place during the Crusades, but even without that knowledge, unless someone is a history addict like me, I think most people will have a hard time staying interested in this book.
Madden has certainly assembled a great deal of research and information, but I believe it could have been presented in a more readable and interesting manner. There have been countless volumes written on the history of the crusades, and I believe others have provided more meaningful and enjoyable presentations.
As far as I can find, the book is well researched and meticulously accurate, but the "gripping narrative" that I expected just isn't there.
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Cruzadas La verdadera Historia/The Concise History of the Crusades (Biblioteca De Historia)
Thomas F. Madden
Manufacturer: Lumen Books/Sites Books
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ASIN: 9870005152 |
Book Description
Volume 2 of Readings in the Western Humanities presents a wide array of primary source readings ranging from the Renaissance to the present day.
Customer Reviews:
Readings in the Western Humanities through the Renaissance.......2004-01-13
This is the fifth edition of "Readings in the Western Humanities, Volume I: Beginnings Through the Renaissance," which complements the first volume of the fifth edition of the textbook "The Western Humanities" by Roy T. Matthews and F. Dewitt Platt, which covers ancient Mesopotamia through the Renaissance (with Volume II doing the Renaissance through the 20th century, leaving it up to professors and institutions to decide whether the Renaissance gets covered first semester or second). When I took history classes in school I always thought it would be nice to read some of the great works of literature and famous speeches from history, because those are primary documents representing the times. Now I find out that in Humanities you can combine history and literature and have been looking at textbooks for a two-semester Humanities course. What attracted me to the Matthews and Platt volumes were these supplemental reading texts (and the CDs with representative music).
In terms of the selections included in this first reading the strategy is clearly to cover the basic texts. If you are only going to do one Greek tragedy it should be "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles and that is what is here, as is the section on Aristotle's "Poetics" that talks about the key elements of tragedy. Instead of choosing between Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey," they provide selections from both. The book begins with the beginnings of Western literature, with selections from "The Code of Hammurabi" and "The Epic of Gilgamesh." The Romans are covered in a bit more depth than the ancient Greeks but the section on the World of Islam is comparable to that of Judaism and the Rise of Christianity, which is certainly relevant in these times. You will find selections from St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dantes's "Inferno," Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, Baldassare Castiglione, and Niccolo Machiavelli. The result is a solid coverage of the West's literary and philosophical heritage, from "Beowulf" to the "Song of Roland." Apparently some of changes were in response to the requests of reviewers and those additions noted in the preface are certainly welcome, even at the expense of "Lysistrata."
Matthews and Platt note that the most substantive change in these readings are the footnotes that provide annotations for identifying difficult proper names, place names, titles, terms, ideas, quotations, and allusions in each selection that are either vital to a work's meaning or useful to know. Having taken considerable pride in doing this for the collection of great speeches that I co-edited many years ago, I certainly applaud this effort (although half the fun of teaching is standing up in front of your students and explaining all about Tiresias the blind prophet of Thebes and how Dante organized the circles of Hell. Now all I have to do is get these classes on the schedule so I can actually use these books.
Book Description
Chronologically organized, The Western Humanities presents the cultural achievements of western civilization—art, music, history, literature, theater, film and the other arts—within their historical context. By examining the historical and material conditions that influenced the form and content of the arts and literature, the authors provide students a deeper understanding of the meaning of cultural works and a broader basis for appreciating the humanities. Hundreds of illustrations appear throughout the text, "Slices of Life" boxes bring to life the events of the day, and brief sections at the end of each chapter describe the cultural legacy of the era discussed.
Customer Reviews:
The essential elements of the Western tradition (Volume 2).......2004-01-31
This is the fifth edition of Volume II of "The Western Humanities" by Roy Matthews and F. DeWitt Platt, covering the cultural achievements of Western civilization in terms of art, music, literature, philosophy, theater, film, and the other arts, from the Renaissance to the Present. The two chapters on the Renaissance are in both volumes of "The Western Humanities," which allows for institutional differences on where various schools decide to break the study of Western humanities into two courses. However, what attracted me to "The Western Civilization" was that in addition to the two textbooks, there were not only a pair of additional books with readings from literature and philosophy, but also a CD with music.
For example, when studying the Age of Reason (1700-1789) students will learn about the Enlightenment, the great powers, and cultural trends in Chapter 16 of this textbook. In the companion collection of readings they will read Pope's "Essay on Man," along with excerpts from Voltaire's "Candide," Rousseau's Confessions," Kant's "Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment," and Wollstonescrft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." Then, on the companion CD, they would get to listen to Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" and Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony No. 94.
As the fifth edition of "The Western Humanities, Volume II: The Renaissance to the Present," emphasizing the linkages between cultural expression and historical conditions. Previous editions had expanded coverage of the contributions of women and other artists outside the traditional canon and added a multicultural dimension that looked at what was happening outside the Western tradition. This fifth edition expands coverage of Islamic civilization, obviously in response to current events.
"The Western Humanities" is organized chronologically into twenty-one chapters, the last 11 of which are in this second volume. The first two chapters cover the Early Renaissance and the High Renaissance followed by one on the Northern Renaissance. Following a pair of chapters on the Baroque, Matthews and Platt break the last three centuries of the previous millennium into the Age of Reason (a.k.a., the Enlightenment), the age of revolution (primarily the industrial one), the triumph of the bourgeoisie, the age of early modernism, the age of the masses, and the age of anxiety and beyond.
Each chapter begins by establishing the material conditions of the era (historical, political, economic, and social) and then presenting the crucial points that defined the culture during that period (major themes, issues, and problems of the period). The second half of each chapter focuses on the cultural expression of the period, including not only ideas in philosophy, history, religion, and science, but also the cultural artifacts of art, music, drama, literature, and (eventually) film. This shows the attempt to balance the historical background with the cultural and artistic achievements, and each chapter concludes with a brief section covering the cultural legacy of that period.
Among the special features are "Windows on the World," a series of two-page timelines that outline the most important historical events and cultural achievements in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, which appear between most of the chapters. "Personal Perspectives" are excerpts from primary sources and original documents that allow students to hear the voices of participants and witnesses in the historical and cultural events described in the text. At the start of the book there is "A Humanities Primer: How to Understand the Arts," that introduces readers to the understanding and appreciation of cultural works (defining and explaining terms and concepts). The back of the book includes an "Appendix, Writing for the Humanities: Research Papers and Essay Examinations," a Glossary, and an Index.
The focus here is on the essential elements and works of the Western tradition, which I see as being less information translating into more understanding and retention, which is certainly something I can appreciate. But as I indicated earlier, what I especially like is how students will get to read extended excerpts from the literature of these times and listen to the music. For someone who teaches online classes, this combination is quite attractive.
Book Description
Volume II of Perspectives on Western Civilization, which spans the early modern period to the present, continues the examination of basic values and changing ideas of the good life. Through a collection of primary and secondary materials, these themes are developed in both their continuity and conflicts with each other. From the new foundation of the civilization in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, new challenges and problems arise with the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution centering on the definition of the individual and the power of the state. The nineteenth century faces additional crises, as the idea of reason and the understanding of the individual are questioned by the writings of Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud, and Christian values are rearticulated. The wars and revolutions of the twentieth century further question the founding ideas of science and the Enlightenment. The concluding chapters highlight the current debates on the viability of the Enlightenment tradition and the position of the modern West among other world civilizations.
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Readings in the Western Humanities: Volume 2
Manufacturer: Mayfield Publishing Company
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: B000V7I964 |
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Revised printing includes an extensive introduction to each reading.
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The Western Humanities Review, University of Utah
Books:
- The Oxford Companion to American Military History
- The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3-Volume Set)
- The Oxford Encyclopedia Of Ancient Egypt, 3 Volume Set
- The Pastons and their England. Studies in an Age in Transition.
- The Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations
- The Rough Guide to the History of the USA (Rough Guide Histories)
- The Routledge Atlas of Jewish History (Routledge Historical Atlases)
- The Search for Order, 1877-1920
- The Storyteller's Daughter
- The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events (Timetables of History)
Books Index
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Crusades Through Arab Eyes
Crusades: The Illustrated History
The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades (Oxford Illustrated Histories)
The Crusades: A History
