The Great Confrontation: Europe and Islam through the Centuries

Many Americans, including George W. Bush, may trace Islamic jihad against the West only as far back as the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Moscow-based historian and scholar Gaiduk knows better. He's written a summary of 14 centuries of relations between Europe (representing a Christian-dominated civilization with a much longer history than the U.S.) and Islam (more a unifying force culturally than geographically). As Gaiduk makes abundantly clear, both Europe and the Islamic world have justified "holy wars" many times in a seesaw battle for moral superiority that both believed was theirs. As a backdrop to this epic struggle, Gaiduk traces a less well-known history of mutually beneficial trade and cultural exchanges that have punctuated long stretches of this 1,400-year history. It is in these latter examples that Gaiduk sees a model for future relations between Islam and the West, rejecting the more commonly held belief that a "clash of civilizations" is chillingly inevitable. His book-ending prescription of "tolerance and partnership," crossing all man-made boundaries to defeat poverty, terrorism, and pollution, is both sensible and depressingly difficult to imagine. --Keith Moerer