Posted: Jun 01, 2010 4:21 am
Regarding "The Crusades as Defensive Wars? A Tenuous Thesis"
Interesting, I first heard about the idea of the crusades as a defensive war nearly ten years ago when someone posted on a forum the writings of Thomas F. Madden, where he was writing on the subject in relation to Bush's use of "crusade" and the media backlash that caused, he called the crusades "in every way a defensive war". I know he goes into detail in his book A Concise History of the Crusades, and it has a preface about 911, though I haven't read it. I have read his stuff on the Medieval world though and he is great historian, and is meant to be one of the world's most promient historians on the crusades. I don't know enough to comment I guess, but I'm wondering, is his view from ideological bias, it could well be with 911 etc, but I'm not 100% certain... is this idea not that well regarded in historical circles Tim???
Interesting, I first heard about the idea of the crusades as a defensive war nearly ten years ago when someone posted on a forum the writings of Thomas F. Madden, where he was writing on the subject in relation to Bush's use of "crusade" and the media backlash that caused, he called the crusades "in every way a defensive war". I know he goes into detail in his book A Concise History of the Crusades, and it has a preface about 911, though I haven't read it. I have read his stuff on the Medieval world though and he is great historian, and is meant to be one of the world's most promient historians on the crusades. I don't know enough to comment I guess, but I'm wondering, is his view from ideological bias, it could well be with 911 etc, but I'm not 100% certain... is this idea not that well regarded in historical circles Tim???