Newstalk host Sean Moncrieff's Recommended Book, November 2009
"[P]rovides valuable insights into the perceptions and misperceptions of the various players that helped create this cultural debacle."
—The Forward
"A thoroughly researched, empathetic, and thoroughly moral and compassionate account…should shake easy and complacent assumptions on all sides…Klausen goes far in demystifying what happened."
—Aziz Huq, altmulsim.com
"For all its newsworthiness, the Danish cartoons affair remains obscure. Jytte Klausen…has written what must rank as the definitive account. It is a model of investigation and exposition. She demonstrates that the global ructions were not some spontaneous eruption of anger, but a campaign orchestrated for political advantage by a series of actors."
—Oliver Kamm, Prospect
"An important, thorough history of the Danish cartoon controversy, based on sound scholarship."
—David Gura, Columbia Journalism Review
"The definitive account of the Danish cartoon controversy...beautifully constructed and intelligent."
—Steven Poole, The Guardian (UK)
"Astute interpretive history...Klausen conveys unusual insight into the furor's geopolitical repercussions."
—Arch Puddington, The Weekly Standard
"Unlike most of those who sounded off during the affair, [Klausen] has followed in detail the domestic Danish debate and interviewed many of the protagonists. In her dissection of the controversy, she nimbly dispels a string of falsehoods and misperceptions."
—The Economist
"Meticulously documents the enormous diplomatic and political machinations that sprang into action to transform an editorial lark in faraway Jutland into a global campaign to censor Islam's critics."
—Ezra Levant, Toronto Globe and Mail
"Klausen's book…is patient and deeply informed and seeks to complicate our understanding of an event that is easily oversimplified."
—Christopher Caldwell, The Weekly Standard
—Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Member of the House of Lords
"A balanced and meticulously researched account of the events surrounding the Danish cartoons controversy. Full of valuable insights and recommendations, this is a must read for policy makers, community leaders, and all interested in good relations between the West and Muslims."
—Bhikhu Parekh, author of A New Politics of Identity
"An extremely thorough and wide-ranging analysis of the facts surrounding the release of the Muhammad cartoons and the international framework in which the cartoons reverberated."
—Steven Simon, Council on Foreign Relations
“In this richly textured detective story, Klausen takes us with her on a journey across continents and cultures in an effort to discover why ‘twelve little cartoons’ set off one of the first truly global crises of the twenty-first century. This is an impressive work by a gifted scholar and is the finest account yet of this little-understood episode in our collective history.”
—Tarek Masoud, Harvard University
“A definitive account of this important chapter in the contemporary encounter between Islam and the West. Klausen takes the reader behind the scenes and explores the winding roads that intersected to create the clash over the cartoons. There is simply no one better placed to write this book.”
—Jonathan Laurence, Boston College
“A significant contribution to understanding the events around the Danish cartoons crisis, which will undoubtedly be subjected to continuing fascination and manipulation. Klausen offers an understanding of the Danish context that no other researcher can match.”
—Jørgen S. Nielsen, University of Copenhagen
“The Danish cartoon crisis has been described as a deep cultural clash. This fine scholarly study presents it instead as a domestic political conflict among Danish citizens that spread to the international political arena. There were many losers, Klausen argues, but no winners. This is, by far, the best analysis of these events, and certainly the most thorough.”
—Martin Schain, author of The Politics of Immigration in France, Britain and the United States
“The ‘cartoons that shook the world’ have polarized opinions and values in a war of words waged around the globe. Jytte Klausen’s timely book brings facts and comparative data to make sense of a debate too often biased by passion, fantasies, and false representations.”
—Patrick Weil, author of How to Be French: Nationality in the Making since 1789
