Volume 56, Number 6 · April 9, 2009
The Great Battle Against Islam
By Colin Thubron
Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
by Roger Crowley
Random House, 336 pp., $30.00
Ever since the great historian Fernand Braudel consigned isolated human events to l'histoire événementielle, calling them mere 'surface disturbances, crests of foam that the tides of history carry on their strong backs,' it has been harder to write of decisive moments in world history. The ineluctable undercurrents of geography and trade, the impact of technologies and climate, conspire to dwarf significant human events. In the face of these groundswells, at the most extreme, battles and treaties and the deeds of 'great men' wither into transience.
Review, 3697 words
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