Susan Faludi: The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America (2007, Libri)

I read a lot of feminist writings in the 1970s, and was often struck by how they opened up novel and (for me) surprising views on subjects that I didn't expect to learn much new or surprising on. I haven't read many feminist writings since then, probably because the insights seemed to grow stale and formulaic. One exception was Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. This is another. It's actually two books: one reviews a long list of "captivity narratives" -- memoirs, accounts, and mythicized novels of white American women kidnapped by Indians, whose presence and alienness was at least as terrifying for early Americans as anything the islamofascists might fantasize; the other is an account of what happened after 9/11, focusing on the reflexive return of sexual role-playing, a world of trembling "security moms" and studly politicians offering themselves as protective heroes. Not that it's exactly lived up to the myth.

Karen Armstrong: Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World (1988; 1991; second edition, paperback, 2001, Anchor Books)

Karen Armstrong has become my first-call resource for the history of religion. I first saw her interviewed by Bill Moyers, then picked up her The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which seemed like something one should learn a little about these days, even if you basically consider them all a bunch of nut cases. I was pleased enough that I sought out her earlier book, A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Wanting to pick up a little historical background on the Crusades, I figured this book would be a good place to start. It is and isn't. The sections on medieavel history are spotty, although they do help, but at least half the book is devoted to more current concerns, especially the Israel-Palestine conflict. Even this isn't all that up to date: the book was originally published in 1988, with a post-9/11 preface rushed out for a timely December 2001 reprint. Going back through the quotes, I wish I had marked more old history and less new, but everything below is interesting in its own right. Just doesn't give the proper feel for the book, which despite its jumbledness is pretty dependably on target -- at least for our present interests in this history. It's certainly not the only possible approach to historical context of the Crusades.