You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Reading this in 2022 knowing that a century has passed after the Settlement. Nothing has changed. The anger still burns.
This is, in general, a good general work on the diplomacy on the creation of the modern Middle East. However, it is not necessarily a good work of "Middle Eastern History" or "Middle Eastern Studies." Essentially, it's a study of the Middle East with Middle Easterners--whether they be Arabs, Persians, Turks, or one of the numerous other groups. Instead, the attention is laser-focused on what was happening within European imperial bureaucracies, especially the British. That isn't a bad thing, per se, as it's clear that Fromkin was purposely trying to write a diplomatic history for a popular audience, but it doesn't quite offer the full picture either.
History at its most readable. An excellent book that explains how the Middle East came to be. Essential - and enjoyable! - reading for understanding the politics of the area.
Quoting from the last chapter of the book:
"The Middle East became what it is today both because the European powers undertook to re-shape it and because Britain and France failed to ensure that the dynasties, the states, and the political system that they established would permanently endure. During and after the First World War, Britain and her Allies destroyed the old order in the region irrevocably; they smashed Turkish rule of the Arab-speaking Middle East beyond repair. To take its place, they created countries, nominated rulers, delineated frontiers, and introduced a state system of the sort that exists everywhere else; but they did not quell all significant local opposition to those decisions."
Quoting from the last chapter of the book:
"The Middle East became what it is today both because the European powers undertook to re-shape it and because Britain and France failed to ensure that the dynasties, the states, and the political system that they established would permanently endure. During and after the First World War, Britain and her Allies destroyed the old order in the region irrevocably; they smashed Turkish rule of the Arab-speaking Middle East beyond repair. To take its place, they created countries, nominated rulers, delineated frontiers, and introduced a state system of the sort that exists everywhere else; but they did not quell all significant local opposition to those decisions."
informative
I didn't get very far before this went back to the library, but what I read I enjoyed. I found it accessible and some of the lesser-known (at least to me) stories of the political machinations during this period were absolutely fascinating. How come no one in any history class in all my education told me the Young Turks were so badass? They're a great, engaging story and they never get any play.
I will definitely catch up with this book and read the rest somewhere down the road.
I will definitely catch up with this book and read the rest somewhere down the road.
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/a-peace-to-end-all-peace/
A very thorough history of the beginning of World War I to the first consequences of Versailles. Answers in a compelling and readable fashion all the questions I had about the conflict, and many that I didn't. It shows, in painstaking detail, that things didn't have to happen the way they did. But the reasons aren't as simple as we'd like to think. Though that's probably what most history should be teaching us.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
An excellent book that helps us understand the politics in the Middle East. Once again, Imperialism created the seeds of much future discontent.