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.
#1048112 in Books 2016-10-20Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.20 x 1.10 x 6.30l; .0 #File Name: 0812248503368 pages
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Growing ViolenceBy R. G. PetersonHere is one book that is a must-read for anyone with serious interest in U.S. history of the late 20th century and these early years of the 21st. It is based on thorough research in both standard and less well-known archives; as well as interviews with many now elderly persons who were involved as police officers; government officials; participants; or witnesses. In the Heat of the Summer is a thoroughly researched and lucid account of outbreaks of violence in 1964 in two New York neighborhoods (Harlem and Bed-Sty); the police and others present; and the social and political contexts: the Civil Rights Movement; LBJ’s Civil Rights Act; his promised Great Society; his War on Crime; what had become his War in Viet-Nam; and his refusal to stand for election one more time. The context afterwards is filled out in a twelfth chapter and an Epilogue: damaging riots across the country; from Washington DC; to Los Angeles; political assassinations; Nixon declaring the end of the Viet-Nam war and the beginning of a War on Drugs; less bloody than Viet-Nam; but generating mass incarceration; even more devastating for African Americans part of the general public; as well as militarization of local police forces with battlefield weapons; body armor; armored personnel carriers; like occupying troops controlling hostile populations. This is an important scholarly book; with endnotes; bibliography; a source list for the oral interviews; and a detailed index—but for non-specialists (like me) it is also a clean; well-lighted place with a darkening message.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Gripping history that illuminates our timeBy TPMThe 1964 civil unrest in New York is best known as the "Harlem Riot." Michael Flamm's fabulous book makes clear that the unrest was more extensive than that name would suggest. Examining both long- and short-term causes; Flamm traces the sources of hostility between the police and New York's African-American communities; provides an absorbing narrative of the riots themselves; and places the events in the context of the broader civil rights movement and the political events of the Johnson-Goldwater election. Rich in telling detail and sometimes jaw-dropping anecdote; "In the Heat of the Summer" is that rarest of creatures: a scholarly treatment of a serious subject that is a gripping read; with a narrative drive that makes the book difficult to put down. Combined with his earlier book Law and Order Law and Order: Street Crime; Civil Unrest; and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s (Columbia Studies in Contemporary American History); also excellent; Flamm has provided readers with a framework to understand better the present state of race relations; criminal justice; and politics; confirming Faulkner's assertion that "the past is never dead; it's not even past."0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A dense but fascinating window into historyBy naruvollFlamm manages to include so much detail that it is hard to feel separate from the events even as he refuses to give easy answers; demanding the reader draw their own conclusions from the profusion of facts. The most interesting and disheartening part of the book for me was how familiar the setting and situation felt; much of the rhetoric and social discord feels as if it could have happened as easily last year as it did in 1964. Which is one of the deep undercurrents of the book; that the riots of 1964 and the political action in response to them in many ways set the stage for the current politics of today. The facts presented offer a compelling argument even as Flamm avoids making an argument until the final pages; all the more deft for the preponderance of evidence presented.
