
A Concise History of the Crusades
Madden, Thomas F
1999, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 0-8476-9429-1, $22.95, hb; 0-8476-9430-5, $12.95, pb
This excellent short history of the crusades to the Holy Land rejects the notion that most crusaders’ primary motivation was mercenary rather than religious, and nicely balances military with political history. Madden interestingly discusses the difficult diversion of crusader fervor to domestic targets such as the Albigensians, and argues that the papacy’s fixation on Muslim expansion left the church vulnerable to the internal threat of Protestantism.
You may also be interested in...
British Library’s 500-Year-Old Nizami Manuscripts Shed Light on Power of Art and Poetry in 12th-Century Herat
Persian and Mughal scholar and specialist Barbara Brend presents a comprehensive study of one of the most highly esteemed works of Persian Literature.Nomadic Chieftain’s Biography Unveils Dynamics of Colonial Expansion
Historian Tetsu Akiyama challenges the narrative that the Kyrgyz were a “static and monotonous ‘traditional’ society’” destined to be subsumed.British Museum Curator Takes Readers on Journey Spanning 6,000 Years
Southeast Asia curator Alexandra Green takes readers on a journey spanning 6,000 years, highlighting objects from Neolithic stone tools to contemporary paintings.