Recommendations from our site
“This book is about the period called the ‘Convivencia’ in Spanish – the coexistence or living together – a period when Muslims, Christians and Jews managed to live together in relative, but not total harmony in the south of Spain under a period of Muslim rule. It lasted roughly from the ninth to the 14th and even the 15th centuries in some places in southern Spain. What’s so interesting about this book is that it so clearly speaks to today. The story it’s trying to tell is one of relative coexistence of three very different cultures. It’s an antidote to the ‘clash of civilizations’ narrative, which is still very much around today, and the idea that we are under threat from immigrants at the gate. How are we all going to live together in a world where one in 10 people by 2050 might be migrants of some kind due to climate change and other issues forcing people to leave their homelands? What this book shows is that there are ways that people with very different cultures and religious backgrounds, have managed to get along.” Read more...
The best books on The Lessons of History
Roman Krznaric, Philosopher
“This had a huge influence on me when I was researching my latest book. I think the biggest threat to the values of pluralist democracy in present day Europe is Islamophobia. There is a very serious danger that this will be to the 21st century what anti-semitism was to the last century. I don’t think it has done so yet, but it could. I found the Rosa Menocal book quite inspiring because of what it showed about the possibility of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish civilisations living together. They managed to co-exist peacefully and to learn from each other in the period that we think of as the Middle Ages or even the Dark Ages.” Read more...
The best books on The End of The West
David Marquand, Political Scientist
