Rating: 
Summary: Shocking Post-Moderns Head-on
Review: Madden presents an excellent and objective case for the real foundations of the Crusades. The two Crusading pillars were, first, a military response to invading Muslims and, second, an overwhelming commitment to theological presuppositions. Medieval Europe was committed to a universal standard of truth. They really believed in souls eternally perishing or eternally flourishing. These ontological and epistemological underpinnings came to fruition in the defense of Europe known as the Crusades. Most of all, this book returns to the post-"post-modern" commitment to real, objective, and honest scholarship. Post-modernism perverts all that it touches, to include history. Madden addresses this perversion head on with accurate historical data that demolishes post-modernism's strangling of the truth.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the "gripping narrative"?
Review: Others who have reviewed this book have found something I never did. I bought this book due to the rave reviews it has received. I won't go so far as to say the book was a disappointment for me, but I was expecting more. The back dust jacket praises Madden's "gripping narrative" but I couldn't find it.
This book is laden with names, places, dates and statistics, but gives very little in the way of content. What I mean by that is, I believe it is possible to editorialize with analytical descriptions of what took place without compromising the integrity of the event. When you read something like "Army A and Army B met on this date at this place. Army A was soundly defeated and lost X number of men." That leaves a lot of room for improvement and does little to hold the readers interest.
Perhaps I am wrongly making the assumption that most people have a fairly basic knowledge of what took place during the Crusades, but even without that knowledge, unless someone is a history addict like me, I think most people will have a hard time staying interested in this book.
Madden has certainly assembled a great deal of research and information, but I believe it could have been presented in a more readable and interesting manner. There have been countless volumes written on the history of the crusades, and I believe others have provided more meaningful and enjoyable presentations.
As far as I can find, the book is well researched and meticulously accurate, but the "gripping narrative" that I expected just isn't there.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth -- After 800 Years
Review: The Crusades remain the most misunderstood and misconstrued movement in human history. The Holy Land has been fought over since time out of mind, and has been held variously by Moslems, Christians, Jews, Romans, Persians, Babylonians, Canaanites, and probably people before that whom the Canaanites killed. Yet the Christians are the only people who held the land without taking it by conquest. Roman pagans ran out Second Temple Judaism and destroyed Jerusalem, then rebuilding a city with another name in that spot. Christians of all other lands used the good Roman roads to get there by pilgrimage and many stayed. When the Roman Empire became Christian, the Christians held the Holy Land suddenly without a blow struck. And only because of Christian involvement did Jerusalem receive back its time honored name. However, during the period when Jerusalem was in "Christian" hands (there never has been a "Christian" people or nation, but while Christian people had governance in the Holy Land), Seljuk Turks came in and took the land and Jerusalem by conquest. Apparently they put many people to the sword and were pretty violent at first, but settled down, despite the fact that Christians and Jews had to wear individually identifiable clothing, and were distinctly second-class citizens. Then one of the new governors burned down the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest place in Christendom. This raised the ire of Christians in Europe even more than the Arab conquest. No immediate movement was organized, for Europe was still recovering from the end of the Viking age. But as word came back not only of the laws against Christians (esp. against evangelism, which has been the whole purpose of the Church since Pentecost, when it started), but atrocities -- some real, some vividly imagined -- a largescale public movement began to free the Holy Land from the Moslem conquerors.The Church, unlike the public at large, was as divided over the Crusades as anything in its history: part of it thought the whole thing was foolishness and should not be prosecuted; part of it thought a good thing to liberate the Holy Land; and part of it, seeing knights were going to fight anyway, should go and fight Moslems rather than other Christians. In any case, after that point many waves of Crusaders went to the Holy Land, with varying degrees of success. At one time, the Christians had foothold enough to have a king in Jerusalem, and might've stayed but for the brilliant Saladin. The greatest was the Third Crusade; but he homesickness of many of the leaders, and their almost Viet Nam esque half-hearted prosecution of the Crusade, for all practical purposes, ended the Christian hope of realizing a liberation of the Holy Land. Throughout history, of course, many societies have tried to shape the Crusades to reflect their own propaganda, most especially the Arab world, which would have us believe that the Crusades were not, as Madden proves with exquisite scholarship, a defensive war; and the Victorians, who lived in a society where again, as during the Crusades, the church and culture were so aligned that the Victorian facade of "morality" unfortunately rubbed off on the Church. In the 20th century, many people who rebelled against "the Church" were really rebelling against Victorianism, and were too ignorant themselves on what the Church actually stood for to tell the two apart. By the modern age of multiculturalism (which is really the reverse of which Victorian empirealism is the obverse), the Church in its 2000 years could do no right in the eyes of the self-proclaimed intelligensia, and the Crusades were universally condemned. Madden makes a very good attempt to put the Crusades in their PROPER context, and it's good to see a scholarly book that tries to get the truth through the constant noise of modern propaganda. I wish Madden would write a series as widespread as Runciman's, for, as good as Runciman's books are, they are woefully outdated and need replacing with someone more open minded.
Rating:
Summary: Delivers as Promised
Review: This book is an excellent "first read" for those with an interest in the Crusades. Thomas Madden's writing is clear and to the point -- um, concise -- and he provides the necessary background when needed (For example, on the rise of Islam). The organization of the book is strictly chronological, making it easy to follow the ebb and flow of the various Crusades. The maps are sufficient to the purpose, though not exceptional. When things get a little complicated -- such as keeping track of the various rulers of the Crusader states -- Madden errs on the side of brevity, to keep the story moving. This allows the reader to take in the sweep of the crusading movement -- the countless errors, massacres, double-crosses, etc. on all sides. As a sort of "bonus", Madden attempts explain the mindset of the Crusaders -- what was it about the Middle Ages that would cause Europeans to take up arms and leave their homes? Personally, I didn't see this so much as a defense or rationalization of Christianity. (Madden also relates Crusades against Christian "heretics" in Europe.) Others may take a different view. But that's the benefit of the book -- it serves as an exposition for further study...or continued debate.
Rating:
Summary: Learned and a Good Read -- a First Rate History!
Review: This is by far the best history of the crusades that I have ever read. If you want to read a compelling account by one of the foremost experts in the field, then look no further than this! Best of all, Madden's book is fully grounded in the best crusade scholarship, yet always a good read. That is what history is all about. Don't miss this excellent book!
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