The Crusades Controversy: Setting the Record Straight

By Thomas F. Madden

This short book, written by medieval historian Thomas Madden, offers a fresh perspective on the Crusades. He refutes the commonly held belief that the Crusades are the reason for the current tensions between Islam and the West and that Catholics are to blame for starting them in the first place.

Closing the gap between historical understanding and popular perception, Madden shows that it's not the Crusades that led to the conflict between the Muslim Middle East and the West, but the artificial memory passed down by Arab nationalists and Islamists. Today, when the Crusades are used as a justification for recent wars and acts of violence, The Crusades Controversy provides a sane understanding of how these holy wars fit within the context of history and the modern challenges our world faces today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781929266135

Book preview

THE

CRUSADES

CONTROVERSY

Copyright © 2017 Thomas F. Madden

Published by Beacon Publishing

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

Portions of this text drawn from: Thomas F. Madden, The Concise History of the Crusades (Rowman and Littlefield, 2013), by permission of the publisher.

Design by Ashley Wirfel

ISBN: 978-1-63582-008-9 (softcover)

ISBN: 978-1-929266-13-5 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Madden, Thomas F., author.

Title: The crusades controversy : setting the record straight / Thomas F. Madden.

Description: North Palm Beach : Beacon Publishing, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017025860 | ISBN 9781635820089 (softcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781929266135 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Crusades. | Crusades—Historiography. | Christianity and other religions—Islam.

Classification: LCC D157 .M335 2017 | DDC

909.07—dc23

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First printing, August 2017

Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

ONE

Are the Crusades to Blame?

TWO

The Real Crusaders

THREE

The First Crusade: A Lone Success

FOUR

A New Age

FIVE

The Muslim Memory

SIX

Today’s Struggle between Islamists and the West

PREFACE

PRIOR TO SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, the world was a different place. Then, the Crusades were a faraway concept, an odd series of events in a distant and murky medieval past. Wars of religion seemed

Reviews for The Crusades Controversy

[ast · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

There is no scholarship in this pamphlet. No references to any historical book or study. The whole thing reads like the racist ramblings of a man who has never left the confines of his small town in middle America. Embarrassing.

[Coach Ajay Almeida · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highly scholarly and accurate information as well as deconstruction of a highly misunderstood historical event