Brilliant

A fascinating story with a terrible ending, highly recommended for anyone interested in the ottomans, really shows how they are a part of European history.

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Fascinating history

Comprehensive yet always enjoyable. This a book to be enjoyed over and over again to ensure that you don’t miss anything.

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Compelling story

An excellent and wide ranging history - this is also a key part of European history too often ignored.

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The level of details and how those details are linked!

Great book, listened twice in one month. How it keeps on reminding the reader of past events, already mentioned, whenever a later event is linked/caused.

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outstanding

There are few works that cover such a long period with such ease and context. You will get a great listen and a very good overview of Ottoman history.

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Accurate and balanced presentation of History

Great book! Highly recommend for history lovers. 500plus years of history was narrated in a very interesting manner

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one way or another it will shock you

I really enjoyed the book as it was much revealing and very well structured. You can tell mr Baer knows alot about the matter. I must say as a Turk myself i found it somewhat confronting on several occasions, which I very much liked. It is refreshing to have an alternative view on old rusted conventional thinking.

However I could not really get over the last few chapters of the book. When it comes to modern history I sense some orientalism at play. This is quite ironic as mr Bear manages to stay objective throughout the majority of the book, i think. But at the end he takes the liberty to use the term genocide when it comes to the Armenian question. Without downplaying the severity of the suffering of the Armenian people in the great war, we must not forget that genocide is a juridical therm. Turkey has never been convicted by international law for genocide because the highly complex and obscure nature of it all. So calling it a genocide is historically incorrect.

Also the rise of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has a one sided view, predominantly negative. For the Turkish people he is like a Washington or Churchill figure, someone of great significance. Besides being a reformer that enters Turkey into the modern age, he has been a genius as a military commander from his early days in Gallipoli untill the ragtag army he led into rebelion against the allied forces carving out modern day Turkey. Ataturk is a whole nother chapter in turkish history that deserves a book on its own. The way mr Baer ends the book is like Mustafa Kemal pasha is a continuation of the young turks. But he is a whole new phenomenon.
I have traveled Europe to quite an extent and almost all western countries commemorate only their own fallen soldiers whilst Mustafa Kemal who was a commander in the Gallipoli front losing tens of thousends of men every day, raised a monument after the war for the turks and allied forces. with this written on it;

Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country to of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
Atatürk, 1934

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6 people found this helpful

Enthralling

Telling the story of the rise and fall of one of the greatest empires the world has seen is no easy feat but to do so whilst remaining fascinating and incredibly informative is impressive in itself.

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A fresh take on a canonical story

First and foremost I'd recommend not limiting your scope of ottoman history to just this book. It's good and has some interesting points but cannot really aspire to be a comprehensive guide or a canonical introduction.
I've read this book in sync (syncing the scope of historical eras) with Balfour's The Ottoman Centuries and this method proved itself quite useful in my opinion.
On the one hand, Baer skipped a lot of quite important events or played them down to a miniscule role compared to Balfour; on the other hand, he gave way for several themes unfitting Balfour's drier narrative. And vice versa, where one lagged or stumbled, the other elaborated on much more details and themes.

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6 people found this helpful

Enlightening and essential reading

Beautiful narration and easy to follow . Gives the reader a perspective that perhaps is often misunderstood on the region and the Ottoman empire

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