The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire

Description

A new, groundbreaking history of the fall of the Ottoman empire, published to coincide with its centenary In the autumn of 1918, revolution spread across Europe. One by one, grand imperial houses collapsed, allowing new republics to take their place. The fall of the Ottoman Empire is usually understood in this light. Turkey's eventual establishment in 1922 often appears as another example of this inevitable movement towards modern nation-states in the wake of the First World War. In this groundbreaking new study, Ryan Gingeras rewrites the story of the Ottoman Empire's last years. The armistice, he demonstrates, did not mean the end the Ottoman sultanate. Rather it marked the beginning of a four-year period of conflict and negotiation over the empire's uncertain future. Through its death throes, the Ottoman collapse left millions dead and displaced and cast doubt upon the future of European empires in the colonial world. Gingeras sheds new light on this dark era and places it within the broader history of the post-Versailles world. Drawing on original research, Fall of the House of Osman tells the story of how the Ottoman Empire's final years shaped the postwar politics of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Arabs and Kurds. As a struggle that challenged the imperial aspirations of Britain, France and the United States, the conflict over the Ottoman lands helped to inspire wider anti-colonial movements from Ireland to India. Fall of the House of Osman is an illuminating account of four violent, divisive and unpredictable years which laid the foundations of the modern world order.

Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, California. His previous books include Eternal Dawn- Turkey in the Age of Atat rk and Sorrowful Shores- Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire, which was shortlisted for the Rothschild Book Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies and the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize.

This epic account of Ottoman decline and the birth of modern Turkey is a tour de force of accessible scholarship. -- Fara Dabhoiwala * The Guardian * Gingeras takes an even-handed approach 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. This book teaches the beginning of wisdom, which is that most human history, as it actually happened, was a terrible, bewildering mess. -- Noel Malcolm * The Telegraph * In his impressive centenary history, 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 with lucid authority. -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman * Dispassionate and well-researched ... Gingeras sets out the twisting, turning story of decline through the later part of the 19th century. -- Peter Frankopan * Financial Times * Fruitful reflections on the enduring cultural legacy of the Ottomans, how their empire ended and what was lost when it did ... brings a welcome human lens to the story of the empire's disintegration. -- Vanessa H. Larson * Washington Post *