Rating: 
Summary: A Treatise on Church History
Review: H.W.Crocker has done an indepth and scholarly review of Christianity. He begins with Christ himself and Pentecost, the start of the Church. Crocker reveals several things, none of which he apologises for: 1) the Catholic Church is the only true and original Church with roots to Christ Himself. 2) The Catholic Church has not vacillated on dogma or doctrine in its 2000 year history. 3) the Catholic Church has had some popes and other leaders which by their human faults made some bad decisions. None of these decisions were ex-cathedra or of the infallible kind. 4) the Church continues to function not as a man made democracy, but as a theocracy headed by the Bishop of Rome who is a direct apostolic successor to Saint Peter. 5) this original Church has survived in nearly its original form for 2000 years. With this background Crocker relates how the Church has evolved and how other religions came into existence. He also tells how these religions and other secular entities have interacted with the Catholic Church. Again, Crocker does not apologize for his views; whether or not you agree with this view, this is an excellent read.
Rating: 
Summary: An example of bad history
Review: I am not going to get into much of full blown scholarly review of this book here, there are other excellent reviews which have already done so. The point of my posting my review is simply to quickly provide a potential reader with my evaluation of this book. This book is really nothing more than one long emotional diatribe, usually against Protestantism. The author's main thesis is something along this line, "if it's Catholic than it's good, and anything else is horrible". The book is highly emotional, and is full of ad hominem attacks against Protestantism. The author never cites primarry historical sources (meaning the actual writings from the time periods to which he is writing about), and instead he relies far too heavily on the works of Will Durant, as well as the work by William Manchester, whom ironically has been thoroughly refuted and whose book does not even include footnotes. Crocker also has an understanding that there existed during the middle-ages and dark ages a seperation between church and state, a view which is simply laughable and a is a gross misunderstanding of church history and the history of western civilization. What Crocker does not like is that instead of a union of church and state with the Roman Church as the highest political authority (as it was during the middle-ages), and that after the Reformation the church became subject to the state, in which case there still existed a union of church and state. The only people during the time of the Reformation who did not believe in the union of church and state was the anabaptist movement, not the Roman Catholic Church. The first government to truly impliment this anabaptist concept was the United States, and it should ironically be noted that the Roman Catholic Church had little involvment is the establishment of the United States which was brought about by "barabarian" Protestants. This does not mean that there were no individual catholics who did not greatly participate in the establishment of this country, there certainly were, but the institution of the Roman Catholic Church was no where to be found in it's involvement (just a little something that fans of this book should take notice of). Crocker simply is not a historian and he he does not understand the rules of historical inquiry, this is book written by someone who has recently converted to a religion and currently possesses a glowing enthusiasim for his faith, but the drawback is that his enthusiasim has simply blinded him to some of the problems that his church has caused throughout history. It should also be noted that no denomiation has a spotless past, either Roman Catholic or Protestant. If someone wants to read a good work on Church history than I suggest the two volume work by Justo Gonzales entitled "The Story Christianity".
Rating:
Summary: History without being "retouched".
Review: The history of the Church is the history of western civilization - in spite of what revisionist "historians" may say. This work does an outstanding job of revealing the glory of the success of the Church as well as the faults. An excellent work!
Rating: 
Summary: A Protestant even likes it.
Review: Even though I'm a Protestant, I loved the book for the first century and a half of Church History. The treatment of the Reformation is quite disappointing but enlightening to a Protestant reader to hear the Catholic prospective. Crocker also seems less inclined to leave be the mystery of grace and faith in order to get in digs on Protestants; maybe he should read more Augustine. Come on, "Evangelicals and Catholics Together", get on the bandwagon!
Rating:
Summary: A rollicking good read
Review: Crocker's wit and refusal to mince words makes for an informative, rollicking good read. Triumph is a concise, unapologetic apology for Catholic truth and how it has perservered throughout the ages. This survey begins with the Acts of the Apostles and ends with our present pope. See how history lends credence to Christ's promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against his Church. Check it out!
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written Catholic propaganda; deserves ZERO stars
Review: If you want something that alternately whitewashes or ignores every evil act commited by the Roman Catholic Church over the past two millenia while at the same time marginalizes and insults a host of non-Catholic faiths and historical figures, then this is the book for you. I'm a proud Roman Catholic, and this book made me embarassed for my faith. Shame on you, Mr. Crocker. TRIUMPH is a complete load of cow dung.
Rating:
Summary: Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church
Review: This book is spectacular. It is solid history, one of the best footnoted books I have ever read, but it reads like a good novel. The author is a former Anglican and brings forth that pithy English humor in almost every paragraph making it pretty amusing as well. It is also a great apologetic work because it addresses several of the key areas that have been well misrepresented by many (Crusades, Inquisition, Reformation, WW II...). It is a book that should be owned by every Catholic family and in particular I would strongly encourage my children to read it for his/her own knowledge and faith.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Serious History Many are Waiting for
Review: I purchased "Triumph" believing it to be a serious, sympathetic history of the Roman Catholic Church. I regret to inform prospective readers I have been disappointed in every respect. I found virtually no factual material here that is not easier to find in other popular and more informative sources. Indeed, there is little evidence from either the infrequent citations or the bibliography that author H. W. Crocker consulted any but popular works like Paul Johnson's "A History of Christianity" and unreliable secondary sources like Russell's "History of Western Philosophy". I would recommend that readers with little background in the history of the Catholic Church start with a work such as Johnson's, which contains far more actual history than "Triumph". As a college philosophy professor, I find the scholarship and the argumentation in "Triumph" astonishingly poor. As one born and raised Roman Catholic, I am deeply offended by Crocker's relentlessly insulting tone towards Protestants, past and present.
In support of my negative opinion of the scholarship and argumentation, here is a small sample of the serious omissions, misrepresentations, outright factual errors and controversial claims asserted with no argument I have found in "Triumph": (1) Crocker misrepresents Pope John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor as a mere reaffirmation of Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae (p. 421), when in fact in Veritatis Splendor John Paul II engages several current movements in moral theology and defends the natural law tradition. (2) Crocker does not even mention Pope Pius XII's Divino Afflante Spiritu, which sparked more new work in Catholic theology than any other papal document of the 20th century. (3) Crocker devotes a single short paragraph to the achievements of the Second Vatican Council (pp. 414-415), neglecting to mention that this council began by ratifying the First Vatican Council (which had been interrupted by war) and that the conciliar documents declared Mary to be the Mother of the Church. (4) Descartes is labeled a secularist who "drove a spike between faith and reason (p. 311)", when in fact Descartes was a faithful Catholic who explicitly stated that his Meditations would provide an irrefutable defense of core Roman Catholic doctrines., (5) William of Ockham is described as one who believes that "only tangible objects are real. (p. 199)"., when Ockham undeniably believed that God and angels are real and intangible. (6) Crocker says nothing regarding St. Thomas Aquinas' monumental intellectual contributions to the Church, save to assert that they are monumental (pp. 167-168). (7) While he rightly observes that Spain was Europe's safest country from the years 1551-1600, Crocker claims the Spanish Inquisition was the cause of this relative safety (pp. 228-229 - Was Germany the safest country in Europe from 1938-1942 because of the Gestapo?)., (8) Crocker asserts that Rousseau was "quite obviously insane (p. 339 - If this is true, how did Rousseau live such an amazingly productive life?).", (9) Crocker asserts that the documents of Vatican II were "hijacked by invokers of the "spirit" of Vatican II to enact sweeping "reform" that the documents themselves did not necessarily call for (p. 415 - How do the changes in the mass Crocker lists as examples here count as the results of "hijacking" when the pope and bishops approved of and even required these changes?) Incidentally, Crocker has a habit of dropping the names of intellectual giants such as Anselm, Aquinas, Ockham, Descartes, Hobbes and Rousseau without saying anything of substance about them. Presumably the reader is supposed to figure out for herself why these people were important figures in the history of the Catholic Church. (They were, and one can learn about them by consulting Father Frederick Copleston's "History of Philosophy", a central work missing from Crocker's mediocre bibliography.) Crocker's misrepresentations of Protestants and Protestantism are too numerous to even begin to describe in a short revue. But it may help prospective readers to know that without exception, Protestants are portrayed here either as mentally unbalanced, evil, or both. In short, I found the main body of "Triumph" glaringly inaccurate and incomplete, and written more like a lengthy, petulant tabloid editorial than a serious work of history. (Crocker can expect far more critical reviews than mine from professional historians.) But I am particularly disappointed by Crocker's short Epilogue, titled "A Few Good Men (pp. 425-427)". Here Crocker takes a final opportunity to sneer at Protestantism, and expresses hope that the Catholic Church will be reinvigorated by "a few good men --- or many good men" who will join the ranks of the Catholic priesthood. I take offense at Crocker's insinuation that the Catholic priesthood is not already filled with many good men. Beyond this, Crocker simply ignores the contributions that other religious and lay people might make towards renewal in the Church. The Church needs many good women just as much as it needs many good men, even if Crocker won't acknowledge it.
Rating:
Summary: A well researced history
Review: A well researched and passionately presented view of the history and importance of the Catholic Church over the last two millennium. Great detail on the numerous contributions to education, art, science, music, philosophy and virtually every discipline of western civilization - as well as explanations as to why the Church refuses to water down God's laws.
Rating:
Summary: The One, True Church!
Review: TRIUMPH is a story about the Holy Spirit's power in the Catholic Church. Through trial, tribulation, war, government takeover, papal disgrace, religious attacks and murder, the Church has survived. This book is a god-send for not only Catholics who don't seem to know enough about their faith, but for the protestants who think Sola Scriptura is enough. I highly recommend this book for anyone who doubts that God did not build His Church on the Rock of Peter. Fascinating reading to arm the Catholic for victory and spiritual development.
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