Episode notes
What were the Crusades really about - and why do they still matter today?
In this deep-dive episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, historian and political scientist Professor Roy Casagranda comes back to the show to unpack the history, legacy and weaponisation of the Crusades.
We begin by exploring why Jerusalem holds such profound spiritual and political importance to Judaism, Christianity and Islam - and how that shared reverence resulted in periods where the city was pluralistic and multicultural, and other periods where it was subject to conquest, ethnic cleansing, colonisation and occupation.
From the First Crusade and the fall of Jerusalem, to the leadership of Salahuddin, to the devastation of the Mongol invasions, Roy walks us through a thousand-year arc of conflict, ideology and empire. But this isn’t just about the past.
We ...