The Crusades Controversy

Setting the Record Straight

By: Thomas F. Madden

Narrated by: Douglas James

Length: 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2017 Thomas F. Madden (P)2018 Thomas F. Madden

Required reading for any educated person.

I cannot think of a single subject modern historians have gotten more wrong than that of the crusades. If you’re going to read a book on the crusades, do yourself a favor and read this first. This short book should be used as a yardstick to measure any other book on the subject.

Short, and to the point.

Must read/ listen especially if you are a young college student. This book/ audio is just one of a thousand on many subjects that have been colored by the present day media and academy.

The History of Crusade Historiography

Perhaps no other episode of Western history suffers more from our habit of imposing current perspectives on past events. Ironically, when 19th century imperialists did it – seeing in the crusades a forerunner of their own exploitations – they created a ready-made rationale for modern jihad. And for endless Western intellectual posturing about a past that, if examined, refuses to conform to their agenda of fashionable cultural self-hatred.

Then there's the fabled damage the crusades inflicted upon Muslim culture, a culture which, for centuries afterward, proved to be far more durable and dynamic – and expansive and threatening – than our posturing intellectual elites care to admit. As the good professor says, in the majestic sweep of Islamic history, the crusades were a mere pin prick.

These are but two eye-opening aspects of this eye-opening little volume. As in his lecture series, Professor Madden does yeoman’s work in the interest of free inquiry and intellectual honesty. Our reader, though a tad dry, certainly delivers Madden’s insights with measured clarity.