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A review by cemoses
Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North by William R. Polk
4.0
A better tittle for the book may be two hundred years of Western Imperialism in the Muslim. As such it is an effective but too long a book.
Particularly for us in the US, it is hard for us to imagine how much of the world Europe colonized. Much of the modern Middle East is a British creation. Egypt in the nineteenth century had been occupied by both the British and the French who looked down on the native population and were very brutal. The strongest part of this book deals with Western colonialism in the Middle East.
The book is too large. It should have just focused on the Middle East. Instead it deals the entire Muslim world which is very large and consists of many different cultures. I ended up skipping over the pages that dealt with Muslims in China and the Philippines. It seemed liked a subject matter for a different book.
Though the book is written in an academic style it is a relative easy read for a book written in this style. Many books written in an academic style are totally unappealing to a lay reader.
It is disappointing that the book does not go inter the full Thousand-year history of contact between the Muslim and Christian world. It still seems to matter to moderns. The author does go into Western Crusades which were very bloody. However, I thought the author did not discuss enough whether the Muslims would have invaded Europe if they could.
The book is written sympathetically towards the Muslims. It did provide me with a greater understanding of the Middle East. However, sometimes one wonders if the author does glosses over many of the internal difficulties of the modern Muslim world.
Particularly for us in the US, it is hard for us to imagine how much of the world Europe colonized. Much of the modern Middle East is a British creation. Egypt in the nineteenth century had been occupied by both the British and the French who looked down on the native population and were very brutal. The strongest part of this book deals with Western colonialism in the Middle East.
The book is too large. It should have just focused on the Middle East. Instead it deals the entire Muslim world which is very large and consists of many different cultures. I ended up skipping over the pages that dealt with Muslims in China and the Philippines. It seemed liked a subject matter for a different book.
Though the book is written in an academic style it is a relative easy read for a book written in this style. Many books written in an academic style are totally unappealing to a lay reader.
It is disappointing that the book does not go inter the full Thousand-year history of contact between the Muslim and Christian world. It still seems to matter to moderns. The author does go into Western Crusades which were very bloody. However, I thought the author did not discuss enough whether the Muslims would have invaded Europe if they could.
The book is written sympathetically towards the Muslims. It did provide me with a greater understanding of the Middle East. However, sometimes one wonders if the author does glosses over many of the internal difficulties of the modern Muslim world.