One of the country’s most distinguished historians, David Levering Lewis won the Pulitzer Prize for each of the volumes in his magisterial biography of W.E.B. Du Bois. Additionally, he is the recipient of the Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize, as well as numerous fellowships and grants. His new book, God’s Crucible, is a panoramic history of Islamic culture in early Europe, from the fall of the Persian and Roman empires and the rise of the prophet Muhammad, through the creation of Muslim Spain.