March 16, 2023, Berlingske Tidende:

"Historical Shame On the Curriculum - Criticises high school history education: 'Students get a 'distorted view of our civilisation'."

Debate interview discussing trends regarding topic selection and framing in today's history education at secondary education levels:

"The fact is that a civilisation that feels guilty about these things is quite unique. Neither the Chinese, Ottomans, nor Arabs felt guilty about their empires or slavery. Only the West has scrutinised its own values and thereby reached the conclusion that slavery is unjustifiable and must be abolished. But students often do not learn about the deep roots in Western culture that led to that conclusion."

The interview is part of a series where journalist and historian Christian Foldager also speaks with Oxford professor Nigel Biggar ("Colonialism. A Moral Reckoning"), Jeffrey Fynn-Paul (Leiden University, "Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World"), and Joanna Williams ("Teaching National Shame"). [Read] (In Danish)

December 16, 2016, Berlingske Tidende:

"Top 10 Books on History of the Year"

No. 5: Michael Pihl and Jesper Rosenløv's The Crusades

Excerpt from press coverage of the book:

The Crusades - Islam's Expansion and Christian Counteroffensive (Spring 2016)

[The book's] sober, well-presented, and above all fair portrayal of sources and facts is a welcome nuance to the tales we usually tell each other about the 'Happy Arabia' and the evil crusaders."

- Kristian Ditlev Jensen, author and journalist (Weekendavisen, April 1, 2016)

A new perspective on the subject with a clear interdisciplinary focus. [...] A book with more depth than we have seen in this area so far. [...] Overall, the conclusion must be that the book is certainly recommended for the book depository."

- Anders Bærholm Frikke (Noter - History Teachers' Association Journal, No. 209, June 2016)

It is a serious, current, and well-written book that dispels myths about the Christian warriors. [...] But Michael Pihls and Jesper Rosenløv's work is first and foremost a thorough and serious history book that, based on the latest research, attempts to tell a completely different story than what we are used to and what we have seen in movies. [...] [The authors] argue well for their choices with an open presentation of the literature they have used. [...] Pihls and Rosenløv's book is a welcome confrontation with persistent myths about the Crusades.

A new excellent textbook competently dispels the myths about a much-discussed topic. [...] An excellent book [...], which can be profitably read by anyone wishing to puncture the myths surrounding the Crusades. [...] [The book] is highly recommended for anyone who would like to be updated and know the deeper background for the current tensions between the Muslim and Western worlds.

The book places the Christian crusaders in a broader and deeper context than usual. [...] Here comes a new book with strong enlightening potential. […] Written and communicated in clear and stringent Danish. [...] One can hardly believe one’s own eyes when opening the richly illustrated textbook with sources and following its presentation of the time, place, progress, and background of the Crusades. For as the subtitle reveals, the Christian crusades are placed in a broader and deeper context with the Islamic expansion in the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern and Southern Europe, which undeniably anticipated them. [...] The Christian counteroffensive rested on notions of penance, pilgrimage, and aid to the Christians in the East who had been subjected to Islamic rulers, although other factors also applied. History rarely plays on just one string. [...] Pihl and Rosenløv's sober textbook places these dynamics in their historical context, while the chronology of the Crusades unfolds, and that is an achievement in itself.

- Mikael Jalving, historian, journalist, and debater (Jyllandsposten, JP-blog, March 9, 2016)

[The book] provides a deeper perspective [...] [and] explains what the Crusades were a reaction to, and why they arose. [...] The two authors do this through a detailed review of Islamic history and the conquests of Islamic empires before they get to the Crusades. They have a good handle on the topics and the sources. [...] The book also refers to hundreds of contemporary sources, which are translated into Danish and available on a related website. Brilliant. [...] The book does not defend the Crusades. It explains them.

- Rasmus H. C. Dreyer, church historian and priest (Sjællandske Medier, March 4, 2016)