Defenders of the West

Why it’s on the list: Ibrahim’s set of eight biographies — Godfrey of Bouillon, El Cid, Richard the Lionheart, Vlad the Impaler, John Hunyadi and others — argued explicitly as a corrective to what he takes to be a sanitised account of the medieval conflict with Islam. Polemical by design; read as an argument, not a survey.

Where I heard about it

• Replies to @typesfast — recommended in the replies when he asked on X “What’s the best history book you’ve read?”, June 2025. Full list: What’s the best history book… (tweet).

• @patrick_oshag’s thread — named in the replies to his question “Anyone read anything thought provoking lately ?”, October 2026 (@mark_collins09, a photo of the cover). Full set of replies: Anyone read anything thought provoking… (tweet).

Connections

• Christianity — the frame the book argues from.
• Religious Intellectualism — religion as the organising claim of a history rather than its subject.
• History — an openly revisionist account, worth reading as a position.
• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.