Rating: 
Summary: Clearing out the fog
Review: Brilliant treatise on a subject important to the formation of European culture and therefore to American culture. The entire crusade movement is either vastly misunderstood or avoided by the western world. Madden clears away any notion of guilt for the American decendants of Europeans. Easily read and yet throughly researched and footnoted. A Consise History is exactly as advertised; concise, enlightening, entertaining, and understandable.
Rating:
Summary: Clearing out the fog
Review: Brilliant treatise on a subject important to the formation of European culture and therefore to American culture. The entire crusade movement is either vastly misunderstood or avoided by the western world. Madden clears away any notion of guilt for the American decendants of Europeans. Easily read and yet throughly researched and footnoted. A Consise History is exactly as advertised; concise, enlightening, entertaining, and understandable.
Rating:
Summary: A very un-PC look at history
Review: For those who have read books about the Crusades written by those who try to find some "balance" between the competing interests of current Middle East territory, this book is a refreshing look at what actually happened. While most of the globe has seen conquest of one form or another, and in some places, many times, this is one book that puts the Crusades in perspective. The Crusades were essentially an attempt to reestablish a Christian presence in the Levant after its conquest by the Islamic forces which swept across Northern Africa and the Middle East after the death of Mohammed. Madden gives us many interesting details of how the Crusades were beaten back by divisions within the Christian community of Europe just as much as they were beaten by the followers of Islam. One of the most intriguing issues is the treatment of how the pagan and Jewish communities were displaced initially by the followers of Christ through conversion to Christianity without force of arms, followed by armed invasions of Islamists who took possession of the area by way of the sword instead of by way of persuasion. The Crusades were essentially a movement to take back these formerly Christian enclaves the only way they could, through force of arms inasmuch as the Koran and its interpreters and enforcers prohibits any kind of freedom of religion as we know it in the West today. It is one of the reasons that there are no Christian churches allowed in Saudi Arabia today, where even observing a Christian service is prohibited. A fact which is always glossed over by Islamic apologists who misrepresent history today. This book has a lot of history, without the stridency of Trifkovic's "The Sword of the Prophet" which is an equally good, if not better, book.
Rating:
Summary: A very un-PC look at history
Review: For those who have read books about the Crusades written by those who try to find some "balance" between the competing interests of current Middle East territory, this book is a refreshing look at what actually happened. While most of the globe has seen conquest of one form or another, and in some places, many times, this is one book that puts the Crusades in perspective. The Crusades were essentially an attempt to reestablish a Christian presence in the Levant after its conquest by the Islamic forces which swept across Northern Africa and the Middle East after the death of Mohammed. Madden gives us many interesting details of how the Crusades were beaten back by divisions within the Christian community of Europe just as much as they were beaten by the followers of Islam. One of the most intriguing issues is the treatment of how the pagan and Jewish communities were displaced initially by the followers of Christ through conversion to Christianity without force of arms, followed by armed invasions of Islamists who took possession of the area by way of the sword instead of by way of persuasion. The Crusades were essentially a movement to take back these formerly Christian enclaves the only way they could, through force of arms inasmuch as the Koran and its interpreters and enforcers prohibits any kind of freedom of religion as we know it in the West today. It is one of the reasons that there are no Christian churches allowed in Saudi Arabia today, where even observing a Christian service is prohibited. A fact which is always glossed over by Islamic apologists who misrepresent history today. This book has a lot of history, without the stridency of Trifkovic's "The Sword of the Prophet" which is an equally good, if not better, book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Read. But concise means CONCISE!!!!
Review: Great book to read for anyone wanting to get a quick learn about the Crusades. This book is very exciting and very informative. Only one problem, Concise means Concise, don't expect to get too many details. But great for anyone wanting a starting point.
Rating: 
Summary: Crusades Pep Rally
Review: Having studied both Middle Eastern and European history at the graduate level I am always interested to see how scholars deal with the Crusades, since it is a subject that tends to show the unacknowledged bias of the authors. The author of this book, for instance, while cloaking himself in teh language of scholarship, is actually a good Christian who writes of the Crusades as their greatest supporter. He is outraged by any suggestion that the Crusades were motivated by anything other than piety and good faith -- "Pious idealism had brought these courageous knights to teh Holy Land . . ." he says at one point, sounding like a 19th century clergyman writing a children's book for Sunday Schools -- and scoffs elaboratley at Sir Steven Runciman's famous summary of the Crusades as "nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God." Madden adopts the idealized self-image of the medieval Crusaders as if it were perfectly true to reality, and literally cheers the Crusaders on all through the book. Here is his rather embarrassing summary of King Richard I of England: "Richard I was the epitome of French Chivalric culture. Well educated, well spoken, and even an accomplished poet, the Lionheart was also a bold man of action. A young man of 32 when he took the throne, Richard was an imposing figure -- tall, blond and physically strong. Like the knights of teh chansons de geste, he was a daring figure, placing himself in personal danger without a thought, always eager to take part in any clash of arms." (87) This is the sort of pangyric that any historian is trained to see through -- it's written to a formula for each king by his creatures, and Madden accepts it as if it were a simple portrait. As the book progresses and the various crusades invade the Middle East, Madden falls into teh old langauge problem that always assails Christian apologists: the Crusaders are brave, valiant, and pious; the Muslims always brutal and wicked. When the Crusaders slaughter Muslim people, it's passed over quickly and with little or no comment; when Muslims slaughter Christians, it's always dwelt upon as a great tragedy, described as a "massacre" and condemned as a product of Muslim brutality. But perhaps of of the funniest problem Madden gets into is his desire to redefine the Crusades as "armed pilgrimage," not as holy war, since this latter term he preserves only for Muslims (jihad), and consistently accuses them of hypocrisy when they declare a holy war to be rid of teh Frankish invaders. The reason for this hair-splitting? Simple enough: Madden wants to insist that the Crusades were not wars at all! They were pilgrimages that had to be armed to accomplish their goal of reaching Jerusalem and liberating it from teh wicked infidel! All the rest, he insists, is incidental. All of the endless seiges, the power struggles, the massacres, the battles, the destruction of teh population of entire cities -- all of this was just a series of footnotes to the wish of some good Christians to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. If that's not the most retrograde reading of the Crusades in the modern world, I don't know what is. And for all that, Madden is a well-meaning fellow, and he tries to be fair, but he just can't do it. He's too engrossed in the rhetoric of chivalric piety in his sources adn it overwhelms his good intentions. In teh end, he writes a competent academic treatment of the Crusades from a Catholci perspective, and if you like such a competence, then this book should serve. It's competence does not extend beyond that goal, however, and anyone interested in any degree whatsoever in the Muslim world will be sorely disappointed. For seculer readers, Runciman has certainly not been replaced.
Rating:
Summary: Very informative
Review: I found this book to be a very pleasant surprise--- yes it is concise but it is written in an efficient style and one thus derives more than it's size or promise.
I thought it to be an intersting book --- especially for those of us who had very limited information on the subject.
I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to get a very good overview of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Right On
Review: I really liked this book, and it it probably the best book on the Crusades I've ever seen or read. There's not much left for me to say, just look at the other reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Feet wetting
Review: If you know nothing of the Crusades, this excellent little book will bring you up to speed. However, keep in mind that the Crusades span several hundred years, consisting of distinct (often disjoint) episodes of history, while this book spans fewer than 200 pages. As a result, most of the context and many of the details, which can be fascinating, are omitted. Enough remains to keep it interesting and sometimes entertaining.
If you are familiar with the Crusades, Madden provides an objective viewpoint and some (necessarily speculative) discussion of the economic and political forces that shaped them.
Rating:
Summary: CHRISTIANS ON JIHAD
Review: It seems all we hear about these days is fundamentalist Arabs blowing themselves up in the name of God or killing innocents or trying to eradicate the Jewish state. There was a time when Christians were just as crackpot. For example, look at the Inquisition, or the Salem witch trials, or even the whole David Koresh thing in recent times. Fortunately for the United States, secular powers have been in the forefront ever since our founding. The world wasn't always like this though. In medieval times, the most important thing in your life to fight for would be your faith. This history begins with a short history of Islam that sets the stage for the first Crusade. Around 1071, a group known as the Seljuk Turks was threatening Byzantium, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The emperor called on the Western European nations to come to his aid. After years of constant fighting with the Turks on their own, in 1096, the First Crusade left Europe which not only took the pressure off the Byzantines, but by luck and fighting captured most of the Holy Land from the Muslims. As any military man or woman knows, capturing territory is not always the hardest part. It's the holding of it that is difficult. The rest of the book chronicles the 500 year history of the Christian failures and successes of getting and then losing modern day Israel. This is a good general history of the Crusades which is exactly what it says on the cover. "Concise". It doesn't dwell on the minutiae of each and every emperor or king of the week. Instead it touches broadly on all aspects of the Crusades. I was almost completely ignorant on the subject and now I believe I could have an intelligent conversation about it. I found it informing that the original intent behind the Crusades was not one of pillaging. It stemmed from a sincere desire to fight in the name of Christ and to free his homeland. It was also about making a pilgrimage. To these knights, it was the highest honor to go on one of these Crusades. Many of the noblemen gave up their lands to raise money for the long trip. I was surprised that there was very little state support. Back in that time, the idea of a nation state was really an empty notion. I thought the book was almost perfect. It didn't linger on anything too long and never got boring. I would recommend it to any general reader as a good intro to the subject.
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