Just finished this book and am shaking my head at how utterly ignorant I am about so much history. This is a really fabulous book about the struggle for the Mediterranean Sea during the 15th and 16th centuries. The age old story of the ongoing conflict between Christianity and Islam is well laid out by Crowley, who does an excellent job of describing just how much the Ottoman Turks ruled the Med during this time period, raiding much of Europe and enslaving thousands of Christians. The fact that Spain, Venice, the Papal States and other European countries could hold off their petty rivalries long enough to win this battle is truly miraculous.
Most Catholics, sadly, don't know the story of the Rosary and its connection to this battle. Unfortunately, in today's namby-pampy multicultural mishmash of Western society, the idea of invoking Christ's name for victory in battle would no doubt make many Catholics cringe, but it was done out of necessity 500 years ago. How soon we forget.
Crowley has written another book on the siege and fall of Constantinople...that will be next.
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