While I agree that the review is written engagingly, and I personally would like to see more book reviews/summaries, I find this decision surprising. Surely, the most important question in evaluating a history book is whether it is accurate. The author addresses this point, but dismisses criticism with “the historians are upset they were bypassed”, and “it does not seem important to me”. This is neither true, kind or necessary: the authors of the review criticize that despite Heinrich’s claims, the Catholic church did not have the power to bring about the changes in social kinship norms that Heinrich attributes to them. This is, like, the central thesis of the book, so it is certainly not unimportant.
To his credit, the author of this review engages openly with the criticism of Charles Freeman in the comments.
While I agree that the review is written engagingly, and I personally would like to see more book reviews/summaries, I find this decision surprising. Surely, the most important question in evaluating a history book is whether it is accurate. The author addresses this point, but dismisses criticism with “the historians are upset they were bypassed”, and “it does not seem important to me”. This is neither true, kind or necessary: the authors of the review criticize that despite Heinrich’s claims, the Catholic church did not have the power to bring about the changes in social kinship norms that Heinrich attributes to them. This is, like, the central thesis of the book, so it is certainly not unimportant.
To his credit, the author of this review engages openly with the criticism of Charles Freeman in the comments.