{"product_id":"the-last-days-of-the-ottoman-empire-9780141992778","title":"The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Impressive ... It is a complicated story that still reverberates, and Gingeras narrates it with lucid authority'' \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe story of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, published to coincide with the centenary of its dissolution\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Ottoman Empire had been one of the major facts in European history since the Middle Ages. By 1914 it had been much reduced, but still remained after Russia the largest European state. Stretching from the Adriatic to the Indian Ocean, the Empire was both a great political entity and a religious one, with the Sultan ruling over the Holy Sites and, as Caliph, the successor to Mohammed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet the Empire''s fateful decision to support Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914, despite its successfully defending itself for much of the war, doomed it to disaster, breaking it up into a series of European colonies and what emerged as an independent Saudi Arabia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRyan Gingeras''s superb new book, published for the centenary of the last Sultan''s departure into exile, explains how these epochal events came about and shows how much we still live in the shadow of decisions taken so long ago. Would all of the Empire fall to marauding Allied armies, or could something be saved? In such an ethnically and religiously entangled region, what would be the price paid to create a cohesive and independent new state? The story of the creation of modern Turkey is an extraordinary, bitter epic, brilliantly told here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis \u003cb\u003eepic account\u003c\/b\u003e of Ottoman decline and the birth of modern Turkey is \u003cb\u003ea tour de force of accessible scholarship.\u003c\/b\u003e -- Fara Dabhoiwala * The Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eGingeras takes \u003cb\u003ean even-handed approach\u003c\/b\u003e to each issue, while never making light of the horrendous tally of human suffering that emerges on every side. Turks have long been treated to an over-simplified account of their modern history. \u003cb\u003eThis book teaches the beginning of wisdom\u003c\/b\u003e, which is that most human history, as it actually happened, was a terrible, bewildering mess. -- Noel Malcolm * The Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eIn his \u003cb\u003eimpressive centenary history\u003c\/b\u003e, Ryan Gingeras recounts not just the death throes of the old realm but the painful emergence of Turkey as a nation state ... It is a complicated story that still reverberates under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Gingeras narrates it \u003cb\u003ewith lucid authority.\u003c\/b\u003e -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eDispassionate and well-researched ... Gingeras sets out the \u003cb\u003etwisting, turning story\u003c\/b\u003e of decline through the later part of the 19th century. -- Peter Frankopan * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFruitful reflections\u003c\/b\u003e on the enduring cultural legacy of the Ottomans, how their empire ended and what was lost when it did ... brings \u003cb\u003ea welcome human lens to the story of the empire's disintegration.\u003c\/b\u003e -- Vanessa H. Larson * Washington Post *","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732514713943,"sku":"9780141992778","price":11.69,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780141992778.jpg?v=1719997220","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-last-days-of-the-ottoman-empire-9780141992778","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}