from DinadansFriend

The Ottoman Empire was destroyed in WWI, and the attempt to create a structure to govern the area, and to reward the victors, is the matter of this book. Mr. Fromkin has done a good job describing the pitfalls that were dug by the arrangement, but the question arises as to how they could have bee...

from ts.

The last 2 chapters were disappointing. In the last one he makes a quick 10 page conclusion of everything that I thought was just poor; I have a feeling he had a deadline to meet and those last 10 pages he regurgitated the night before it was due. All in all, it was interesting, but very, very de...

from Othemts

In the wake of the First World War, Western governments divvy up the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire and adjacent territories. They create new nations (sometimes with no real cultural or historical basis) and pit inhabitants against one another. The results of the political maneuvering 80 years ag...

from kiparsky

A dense and demanding treatment of the development of the modern middle east states. This is not, despite the subtitle, any kind of history of the fall of the Ottoman empire - the subject hardly comes up, and would have to start in any case long before Fromkin begins. Fromkin's history is instead...

from markon

These are comments, not really a review What I liked about it: Big picture view of Western European interests that were influential in creating what we call the Middle East out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey/Middle East/Central Asia). Particularly British, as well as (to a lesser ex...