Jackals In Iron

Book Description

FATE MADE THEM ENEMIES FROM BOYHOOD. DESTINY & VENGEANCE MADE THEM ALLIES. THE STORY OF THE NORMAN INVASION OF ENGLAND Jackals in Iron is a historical novel filled with history, and succinctly told with depth and authentic detail. Extensive glossary of medieval terms and maps.

This is a tale of sweeping scope, passing through more than a century of intrigue, battles and alliances. Here Guy meets Edward the Confessor, King of England, and his dashing successor Harold Godwinson. Guy joins Normandy's war against Harold to seek a morbid vengeance. He admires and loathes William Bastard, Duke of Normandy, destined to become King of England, and known to history as the Conqueror.

Guy says he is William's enemy, and yet, at the end, no one else stands by him save he alone. "The history of our house has been greatly affected by the presence of the Normans. If I am honest, I will admit this right from the start: Ponthieu has been eclipsed by William Bastard and his brood..." Thus begins the dictated history of Count Guy of Ponthieu, in the last year of his life, as he meets with monk historians at the abbey of Saint-Evroult. They have asked the aged Count of Ponthieu to commit his memories and observations to writing, for a great compiled history of the Norman dukes and kings of England. The year is 1100 A D. The Norman Conquest of England is the accomplished fact of the previous generation. Count Guy's generation.

Customer Reviews:

1066 and All That!.......2006-07-14

Mr Larsen certainly knows his stuff, this is a brilliant book - very well researched and easy to read. Packed full of historically correct information that gives a definite atmosphere of being right there as it happens.

This book would be extremely useful to anyone studying this period of English and/or French history, without them having to suffer the boredom of dry bare facts.

Reads like a true diary of the Norman Conquests.......2002-11-05

The authentic feel of this book only hints at the deep research author Merlin Douglas Larsen must have done into the life and times of Count Guy of Ponthieu, who writes his memoirs in the year 1100. Now, as all students know, the Norman conquest of England culminated in 1066 with the Battle of Hastings, where William the Conqueror struck Harold in the eye with a lance and won the battle.

The elder military nobleman tells how he became intangled in the Norman invasions. The book is written as a tale told, so the action is all from Count Guy's point of view and reads almost as a diary. This, plus the well-researched background give this book the feel that it was written on parchment and really just unearthed underneath the altar of some abbey to be translated for scholars to argue over.

But memoir-like tone aside, the book is packed with action, battles and political maneuvering. It will probably appeal to men a bit more than women, since this is a book about war and not a romantic-style historical drama. Readers who like such books as "Pillars of the Earth" will probably enjoy "Jackals in Iron."

The Compulsive Reader reviews Jackals in Iron.......2002-11-04

"Excellent storytelling. And excellent history. The heroes and villains...come alive for the reader. Their customs, power struggles, machinations, and alliances are all examined and fully explained. And when William the Conqueror arrives on the scene, he proves to be a formidable antihero who makes a worthy spiritual antagonist for Guy.

"In Larsen's book, personal history and public history are so intertwined that Jackals in Iron is not only a historical fiction, it becomes a study in storytelling as history. Recording of all kind pops up in the book. In one scene, Brother Turold, a dwarf, records a battle at the behest of a lord to some seamstresses who embroidered a tapestry which depicted a scene "the way Bishop Odo said William wanted the story of Harold's death portrayed. In another scene, in a discussion about perjury, witnesses, and moot discussions, one character tells another, "It would be pointless to examine minutia about every knight who might have struck a blow in battle." To which another character replies, "Not pointless at all. When do we decide that the truth is not to be pursued, and is to be replaced by hyperbole?"

Stuff of which Hollywood movies are made.......2002-09-14

Set in England in 1100 A.D., a generation after the Norman Conquest, Jackals In Iron is a historical novel of oppression, survival, and vengeance. A dramatic saga, firmly rooted in history and events, of one man's struggle against an irresistible force. Author Merlin Douglas Larsen has deftly crafted an engaging saga of pivotal battles and strange alliances against a meticulously presented historical background. Superbly written, Jackals In Iron is one of those novels that is a riveting read from cover to cover. This is the stuff of which Hollywood movies and television mini-series are made!

Impressive rich detail!.......2002-08-04

Larsen's Jackals in Iron is a "must read" for the avid history buff and for those who have a hankering for distinguished story-telling at it's best. In impressive rich detail, every turn of the page expounds the history of the Norman incursion of England amongst other notable battles, chronicling the lives and actions of heroes, miscreants and citizens caught in the middle of life-altering movements of nations.

At the outset of the novel (1100 A.D.), we become acquainted with the principal character - Count Guy of Ponthieu - a "worldly hardened warrior" advanced in age and held in high esteem by his comrades. Along with his youthful wife Estelle, the Count is invited on a sojourn to the abbey of Saint-Evroult, to recount his life experiences, scribed for posterity by the monks residing there. As he relates his past in detail (the atrocities committed during war, the conquests, the family conflicts, and the inner battles, etc.) to the eager party of copyists, we are treated to a retroactive narrative. We become deeply entrenched in the Count's read-worthy experiences, and consequences of his past decisions.

The reader is also generously provided with a glossary of terms, as well as lineage flow charts and maps, which I personally found very helpful in better understanding certain details of the story. They also added much the richness of the read. Without a doubt, the extensive detail and research that must have gone into penning such a novel will astound even the most picky of history aficionados.

Larsen unquestionably deserves the sincerest of kudos for this masterpiece. Jackals in Iron is highly recommended for those who prefer a more `meatier' read that is most enjoyable

Customer Reviews:

Sure, why not?.......2007-09-23

Go ahead and buy this book if you like the various Teen Titans titles. You could do a lot worse.

Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03

If however many Brother Bloods were not a problem for the Teen Titans, you can throw in the 11/10 amoral man Deathstroke, and his evil supervillain daughter. Hooboy has he screwed her up.

So, some good bad guys to cause the midget type heroes some problem sin this trade.

Amazing.......2006-11-11

It's an amazing tail about the birth of stongest young team of superheroes

Trigon revisited.......2005-11-23

This is sequel to 'Kid's game' and second book of Teen Titan's relaunch but, for me, story was lame. Main villain is some kinda warlock/gothic guy and there is lot of blood, bones and splatter, as if Clive Barker wrote a book (or you are playing Diablo). Artwork is good, but story reminds me too much of fight with Trigon in original Titan's first story arc...I guess don't like magic/gothic stories in superhero books.

Sins of the father.......2005-10-23

The second arc in Geoff Johns' re-launch of the Teen Titans finds the team facing off against Deathstroke again, only this time he has help. Former Titan and daughter of Deathstroke Rose has become the new Ravager, and they get thrown into the mix when the Titans later race against time to save Raven from the evil Brother Blood. While there is solid action throughout and the story gets off to a kicking start, the two characters that we're supposed to feel sorry for, Raven and Rose, don't leave the reader feeling any real sympathies for. Both are on paths that aren't entirely in their control (thanks to their respective fathers), and it's only Rose that we feel anything for, and that doesn't happen until this TPB's last page. Despite that, A Family Lost is still a solid and enjoyable Titans story, and the art by Mike McKone and co. continues to be nothing but solid as well. All in all, if you enjoyed A Kid's Game, you'll probably enjoy this as well.

Book Description

King Cinhil, who had assured peace between the Deryni and humans in Gwynedd, was dying. And the regents who were set to rule in the place of his sickly son were evil men who could very well undo all that Cinhil had accomplished. Once they ruled, no Deryni would be safe. The only hope lay in a discovery that blocked off all Deryni talents, enabling them to go underground and appear as humans. But that meant that the race of Deryni could be saved only by being destroyed as Deryni...!

Customer Reviews:

For the enitre trilogy...........2005-08-03

Nothing is overlooked in this delightful (though somewhat depressing) trilogy. The third book had me crying like a baby, which is a sign that the characters are very well developed, and they are indeed.

I do not reccomend any Kurtz book to anyone easily depressed; Ms. Kurtz is easily one of the most ruthless authors on the market. She knows how to pull the reader's heartstrings. Just when one thinks everything is safe, she has something up her sleeve.

Katherine Kurtz is a fabulous author. She is ruthless, but none of her killed-off characters die, um, how to say this....there are no...there are no excessive deaths...Some authors who try to get emotion out of readers by killing main characters over do it. Ms. Kurtz has restraint.....

There is no gore; hardly any profanity (and all in places where it NEEDS to be); and nothing besides violence. An A+ PG-13 rating, rather like the Lord of the Rings movies: so good, and only a few things keeping it from a 'good for all' statement.

As a final note, I'll note that Kurtz is highly original. The little comparison to LOTR was nothing more than something to compare quality to quality; that is the only thing they share, great writing and gret characters.......

What are you waiting for? You could have ordered the first book by now!!!!

Memorable.......2003-08-09

Had to add a review for this one, since so few have been posted (and none good enough!)

Camber of Culdi has been masquerading (or not?) as Bishop Alister Cullen for a number of years now--long enough to see both his hopes and fears for the human Haldane line of Gwynedd kings he restored coming to fruition. King Cinhil, the displaced would be monk, has finally come into his own with three young sons and a distressingly independent mind of his own. But Cinhil's death sets off the chain reaction of fear and oppression Camber feared all along, led by a small, cynical, well-connected band of human Regents that will do anything to seize power. Will any of what Camber sacrificed everything for survive the coming fire?

Much of what shines most brightly in Kurtz's work is present here: her grasp of history and power politics in a medieval realm, her eye for detail, and a human touch that is most affecting when Kurtz refuses to pull punches. The death of one particular character in this book is haunting, and Camber's trials of conscience make him one of my favorite Kurtz characters ever. Kurtz brought a world full of human frailties, heartbreaking misfortunes and miscalculations, and innocent tragedies so deeply close to home.

Woo Hoo!.......2002-12-28

King Cinhil, the monk, but only heir to the throne of Gwynedd, has finally come into his own with three young sons. Upon Cinhil's death however somes the long feared chain of events caused by the fear of the Deryni race the Cinhil has protected thus far. A small group of well-connected humans who will now be regents to the future king of Gwynedd will do anything to seize power, and destroy the Deryni the fear so much. Can Camber and his family stop them yet again and spare their magical race from destruction?

Ms. Kurtz has an amazing way of putting all human emotion, into words that will make any reader feel exactally what her character's endure. She can take a magical race of humans and make everything they do seem real and beleivable. One can grow attached to her charaters to a point that you could actaully picture them in detail, and possibly guess how they would react to a situation. Ms. Kurtz leaves nothing out. Her attention to detail is astonishing.

This is a fantastic sequel to this series, and that is hard to say as I don't want the series to end.

The BEST of the Deryni books.......2001-05-25

Camber, a man torn between his sense of duty and his sense of right and wrong, the Deryni lord who led the war to end the tyranny of his kind and restore a human king to the throne of Gwynedd. Now he must witness the consequences of his moral act as the humans, now in control of the kingdom and the church, systematically strip all Deryni of power, title, land, and humanity. This may be a fantasy novel, but it brilliantly and starkly illustrates the horrors of fanaticism, intolerance, and oppression. It is a dark and tragic book(no escapism here!), and its emotional impact will stay with the reader forever. If you've ever longed for a fantasy with REAL depth, then read this series.

Another great book from Katherine Kurtz!.......1999-08-04

This book goes into the lives of Cinhil's sons, Alroy, Javan, and Rhys Michael. The power-giving ritual is explored once again, and the excitement and humor is still apparent in this book. I think any fan of Ms. Kurtz will enjoy this book.

Camber the Heretic - Volume Three of the Legends of Camber the Culdi

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Camber the Heretic - Volume Three of the Legends of Camber the Culdi

Manufacturer: Ballantine
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000H7X5V2

Camber of Heretic (Legends of Camber of Culdi, volume 3)

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Camber of Heretic (Legends of Camber of Culdi, volume 3)
Katherine Kurtz
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

High Deryni (Chronicles of the Deryni)

ASIN: B000QD3FN0

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book club edition

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CAMBER THE HERETIC
katherine Kurtz
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Binding: Paperback

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Camber the Heretic
Katherine Kurtz
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Camber The Heretic
Kurtz
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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Camber the Heretic

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Camber the Heretic

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Camber the Heretic
Katherine Kurtz
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Quest for Saint Camber

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Anti-Western, Anti-Christian

patchy, but has its moments

The history and sociology of Christan views of Islam

Laughably overwritten and PC

Not a History; more a commentary; peters out horribly at end

Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam
Andrew Wheatcroft
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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History | Islam | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Infidel Infidel

ASIN: 1400062306
Release Date: 2004-06-15

Book Description

Here is the first panoptic history of the long struggle between the Christian West and Islam.

In this dazzlingly written, acutely nuanced account, Andrew Wheatcroft tracks a deep fault line of animosity between civilizations. He begins with a stunning account of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, then turns to the main zones of conflict: Spain, from which the descendants of the Moors were eventually expelled; the Middle East, where Crusaders and Muslims clashed for years; and the Balkans, where distant memories spurred atrocities even into the twentieth century. Throughout, Wheatcroft delves beneath stereotypes, looking incisively at how images, ideas, language, and technology (from the printing press to the Internet), as well as politics, religion, and conquest, have allowed each side to demonize the other, revive old grievances, and fuel across centuries a seemingly unquenchable enmity. Finally, Wheatcroft tells how this fraught history led to our present maelstrom. We cannot, he argues, come to terms with today’s perplexing animosities without confronting this dark past.

Customer Reviews:

Anti-Western, Anti-Christian.......2007-02-14

After the first chapter, this book goes downhill quickly. All the atrocities are western and Christian, and all the misunderstandings are Muslim.

Just to take one example of the poor information in this book, on page 135 the author claim that reports of cannibalism by the caribs was a "calumny, not very different from the accusations that Jews crucified children and drank their blood." This is incorrect. While the amount of cannibalism may have been exaggerated (or it may not have), cannibalism among the carib is widely documented. This obvious error places the rest of the book in doubt.

There are many other books on Islam you should consider reading before this one.

patchy, but has its moments.......2007-01-21

"Infidels" sits in that uncomfortable place of appearing as a scholarly work -- but actually being more of a "coffee table" subjective "bar philosopher" book.

But that is not to denigrate its good points. The author acts as an apologist for some of the worst double standards of Islamic history, and he excuses their prejudice -- but his research is very revelatory if one reads between the lines.

The myth we often hear about is that there was indeed, a "golden age of Islamic rule", when everything was just fine, and Muslim, Xtian and Jew all lived together in a state of equality and harmony -- Wheatcroft stealthily, hesitantly, tries to prove this to be a true assertion -- but it seems very doubtful such a golden age ever existed.

After all, Xtians and Jews had to pay a protection tax ( Jizya ) , which clearly sounds like a mafia protection racket ( EG "Pay up...or else who knows what will happen to you...." ) and also , Jews and Xtians were subject to further reminders of their status: they were not allowed to build new centres of worship, and remaining centres of worship were not allowed to be renovated if in need of repair. Church bells were not allowed, and periodically throughout the Muslim rule of Spain, there were attacks on Jews and Xtians, and Jews and Xtians periodically, had to wear cumbersome markers of their faith, such as huge , unwieldy crosses to be worn on Xtian's necks, or ridiculous head wear.

So -- Wheatcroft tries a lot of "moral relativism" in this book to -- in right on PC manner, excuse Muslim prejudice -- but anyone can see the "golden age" didn't really ever exist. Jews and Xtians are /always were tolerated in Islamic countries -- as long as they "know their ( inferior ) place." Sure, now and again, a few Jews and Xtians "got through the net" and rose up to be eminent surgeons, economic advisors, traders and so on -- but count them on one hand.

It has some high moments of narrative brightness -- but it mostly skims over/skews historical record in favour of subjective "moral relativism." It is ok as far as it goes, and surely books like this have their audience, and there is a lot to be learned from Wheatfcroft if you are prepared to overlook his "PC right on" style. I enjoyed this book, and gained a lot of insight from reading it, mostly that the "Islamic Golden Age" of fairness and decency towards all creeds -- never really existed.

The history and sociology of Christan views of Islam.......2006-10-25

_Infidels_ by Andrew Wheatcroft is an account of the history of conflict between European Christendom and Mediterranean Islam. Though the book can be read as a history of a number of interactions between Islam and Christianity - the initial Arab invasions, the Islamic conquest and Christian reconquest of Spain, the Crusades, and European conflicts with the Ottomans - it is really more about how and why these two cultures came to feel the way they did about each other both in the past and today and how these feelings were sustained over the centuries, with the emphasis being more on the Christian side of the equation.

Wheatcroft argued in this book that the Western view of Mediterranean Islam was and is rooted in the distant past. Negative views of Muslims were often created or exaggerated and spread for political reasons. In areas where Christians were minorities, such as in Islamic-dominated Spain and in parts of the Balkans, historical memory came to be honored as a defiant form of resistance, memory that could serve to bind and unite a community but also serve to sustain (and later reinvigorate) hatred. In the mid 9th century for instance leaders in the Christian community in Spain sought to arrest the erosion of the number of Christians - many were converting to Islam or were otherwise becoming less distinctly Christian - by working hard to accentuate the differences between Christians and Muslims and even to create conflict where there wasn't by a series of martyrdoms. There were theologians who saw Muslims as a necessary evil, that they existed "to fulfill the word and will of God," a view often favored in the apocalyptic views of medieval Christians, seeing for instance the Muslim conquest of the Visigothic kingdom in Spain as an "elaborate metaphor" pointing to the evils of that kingdom, their consequences, and lessons for later Christians. The threat of the Muslims became a "heavy flail" used by God (or the priests) to bring His people back in line.

Sometimes fear and hatred of Islam occurred without any conscious planning by Western religious and political leaders. Ideas and views of events could also develop a life of their own, fueling negative stereotypes and hatred. Wheatcroft recounted how the very concept of crusade produced effects that echoed centuries after the death of its author, Pope Urban II, and how prior to that, accounts of Christian pilgrims being attacked and robbed by Muslim brigands on their way to Jerusalem could be exaggerated, often at first to make the heroism of those involved more impressive but later for other reasons as negative views became dominant. Also during the Crusades each conquest "engendered a desire for reconquest," producing a conditioned response that became more and more imprinted on both Christianity and Islam. In the end each culture was left with a "well-honed ideology of war in a just cause." Both civilizations were left with a "malign heritage," each civilization writing and mythologizing opposing narratives of history.

Wheatcroft wrote that historical memory could be viewed as form of group thinking and would more often than not have negative consequences. Group thinking, as defined by Irving L. Janis, is a situation in which members are under pressure to adhere to a certain point of view, tending to discredit and explain away ideas contrary to that of the group, constructing negative stereotypes of enemies and rivals outside the group, viewing those who question group stereotypes and ideas as disloyal, and falsely perceiving within the group silence of group members as consent. Group thinking could be seen to have occurred at many times and among many groups in European Christendom with regards to Islam.

Western views of the Islamic world became largely imprinted in the two centuries following the Islamic conquest of Constantinople in 1453. This period marks the development and spread of the printed word and image in the West, resulting in by the late 17th century a near universal image in the West of how the Muslim "infidel" looked like and behaved. Though hostility towards the Muslim world dated to much earlier times, it was the printed word and image (as well as a lesser extent later painted works of art and sculpture and the like) that solidified the definition of the Muslim infidel and served to sustain negative views of Muslims. Additionally, these innovations have meant that the West's negative views of Islam have been much more "potent and widespread" than that found in the world of Islam, with Christian interest in the world of Islam far exceeding any Muslim interest in Christendom, a situation only now being corrected by Islam with the spread of the printing press and visual and electronic media to the East.

I found the author's account of why the West got such a head start on the use of the printed word and image quite interesting. Discounting notions of universal Islamic disdain for images, he instead focused on other causes, such as the difficulty of typesetting in Arabic, as it is essentially a cursive written language, in sharp contrast to European languages which are made up of individual letters, a format that readily lends itself to typesetting; the fact that Arabic letter forms can change, depending upon where in a word they are, necessitating the creation of a minimum of 500 different pieces of type, prohibitively expensive to most early printing companies; the fact that the printing press was opposed by powerful vested interests in the Muslim world, namely the scribes and clerks who ran the Ottoman Empire and religious elite who controlled the mosques, where most of the copying was carried on and where the majority of publicly accessible books were located; the fact that Ottoman authorities limited early printed books to subjects such as mathematics and science, too small of a market to sustain publishers when most of the public really wanted books on religion and law; and finally early printed books were very crude and competed poorly with handwritten products.

Laughably overwritten and PC.......2006-03-16

This is a book I wanted to like, and so I'm frankly very disappointed with it, and therefore very negative about it. The idea appealed to me: the author proposed to study the conflict between the worlds of Christianity and Islam, and the circumstances, causes, and consequences of that conflict. The idea, while interesting in concept, has been hopefully mangled in execution.

Wheatcroft very transparently has an agenda, and it's apparent from the word go what it is. After an introductory chapter describing the Battle of Lepanto. The famous question "Why do they hate us?" has for Wheatcroft only one answer: "Because we've been horribly unfair to them." This becomes immediately apparent when he jumps across the first four centuries or so of Islamic conquest of much of the Middle East for a favorite subject for Muslim apologists: the Muslim kingdoms in Spain. He spends most of this part of the book describing the Kingdom of Granada, contrasting what he refers to as Christian "perfidy" with Muslim "convivencia", the term used to describe the Kingdom's tolerance of Christians and Jews.

From there, the author turns to the Balkans. He spends considerable time discussing the various collisions between Muslims and Christians in the region, without of course discussing the fact that the Muslims were invading Christian territory. Other parts of the book deal with more modern subjects, the study finally concluding with a discussion of President Bush and his advisors fighting the War on Terror.

One of the more annoying things the author does in this book is what a friend of mine once referred to as putting sand on the scales. Every time he tells you something bad or negative about the Muslim world, he immediately tells you something equivalent that the Christian world did at the same time. It gets a bit tiring, and of course if the book was complete, it wouldn't always work. One damning aspect of this is a specific subject: that of the Janissaries. The Janissaries appear in the book in several places (you can't really write about the Balkans during the Muslim incursions there without mentioning them) but beyond telling you that they're soldiers, the author says nothing. This is probably because of how they were recruited: Christian boys were kidnapped from their parents, raised as Muslims, drafted into the army, and sent to conquer Christians and oppress those in occupied territory. They were very effective at this, and Christians hated the whole practice, but since Wheatcroft can't tell you this and then follow the story with something equivalent that the Christians did to Muslims, he leaves the whole thing out.

By two thirds of the way through the book, the author shifts the focus of the book to a discussion of the words used in the conflict. The author is able, therefore, to avoid the circumstances of the War on Terror (he only very briefly discusses 9/11) and go right to criticising Bush. Strangely, he avoids the usual "Bush is an idiot" criticisms, and instead goes for a more nuanced complaint about the ideas he expresses and the people who surround him. It's still off the mark, I'm afraid: much of the criticism involves a discussion of the fact that the president is a religious man, and apparently religion shouldn't play a part in government decisions. I'm not a religious man myself, much, but this is to my mind a bit of a stretch.

I wanted, as I said, to enjoy this book. I am afraid I found it very tedious, long, and difficult to follow, and I really didn't enjoy much of it, or feel I was informed by it.

Not a History; more a commentary; peters out horribly at end.......2006-03-03

Over the last five years, like many Americans, I resolved to learn more about Islam and the History of Islam. The title and sub-title of this book caught my eye. Surely, it would offer insight.

The book starts off very well with an excellent summary and description of the naval battle near Lepanto, 1571.

The second chapter "First Contact" starts off well and provides excellent summaries, but then changes both its tone and topic---foretelling what will be covered in the rest of the book and the author's tone. The final sentence of the chapter is "The dominant Western paradigms of 'Islam'---oppression, savagery, and threat---determined how events, structures, and images were to be understood."

In other words, he will write not about events---because according to Wheatcroft events don't make up history. Interpretation of words make up history, so we can't totally trust history. In other words, it's all a misunderstanding over words.

The rest of the book covers selected time periods (events), describes structures (government and buildings), and discusses the importance of images (icons, and mass media), then devolves into a wandering essay on "maledicta" ('bad words') with mild attacks against Bernard Lewis, Zekaria of Newsweek, George Bush, and others.

The author finally writes about "words" and their power, and attempts to compare the present situation with the one faced by the US President Lincoln, and like Lincoln, calls on "the better angels of our nature".

At the end of the book Wheatcroft writes, "If history teaches us anything, it is that monolithic certainty shrinks, blurs, or fades as the centuries pass. Or it should, unless bitter memories are deliberately revived".

Even though the author states how the Muslims attacked Constantinople by the year 670, again in 717, and continually after that until 1453, even though he counts the slaughtered, the decapitated, the forced conversions, even though it is the Muslims who seem to be stuck in the past by keeping past defeats alive---Wheatcroft ultimately seems to blame the West for the current situation.

Other reviewers here have stated how he is biased in favor of Islam. I don't think that is the case. I think the author tried to be so "fair" and even-handed that he ignored facts and fell into the trap of moral equivalancy. Every event has two sides; every slaughter is balanced (or he tries to balance them) by something the other side does. Ultimately, he tries to believe there are not two sides.

If you believe in moral equivalancy and believe there is no truth then this might be the book for you, otherwise skip it.

Infidels: The Conflict Between Christendom and Islam, 638-2002

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Infidels: The Conflict Between Christendom and Islam, 638-2002
Andrew Wheatcroft
Manufacturer: Viking Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Comparative Religion | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0670869422

Download Description

chapter one

"We Praise Thee, O God"

lepanto, 1571

on august 14, 1571, a gigantic ship's pennant of silk damask passed through the congested streets of Naples. Embroidered to the pope's commission, it was the standard of Christendom, to fly from the tallest mast in the fleet of the Holy League as it sailed into battle. The pope's banner with a huge golden figure of Christ nailed to the cross loomed over the stocky Spanish soldiers who carried it in procession from the steps of the Church of Santa Clara. As the blue flag moved through the Neapolitan crowds, an unnatural stillness gripped all who watched it go by. An hour before, inside the church, the assembled nobles, officers, monks, and priests had stood silent and unmoving, all their eyes on the admiral of the Holy League, Don John of Austria. Arrayed in cloth of gold, scarlet satin, and white velvet, the young admiral knelt before the altar as the pope's representative, Cardinal Granvelle, handed him his staff of office and pointed to the great banner behind him. "Take these emblems," the cardinal exhorted, "of the Word made flesh, these symbols of the true faith, and may they give thee a glorious victory over our impious enemy and by thy hand may his pride be laid low."

Below the cross of Christ were the emblems of the king of Spain and of the Holy Father, Pope Pius V, with the badge of the Republic of Venice, all linked by a great golden chain, symbolizing the power of faith that bound them together. From that chain, in slightly smaller scale, hung the pendant crest of Don John.The emblems marked a brief moment of unity. For the first time in more than a century, Christendom had combined in force to do battle with the power of "Islam." The war was sanctified, waged under the protection of the golden figure of Christ. The pope had declared that those who fought in this struggle were to be granted the same plenary indulgences as earlier Crusaders fighting to secure the Holy Sepulchre i

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