5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The title is very accurate of the subject matter, July 17, 2000
By A Customer
I was interested in how the Ottoman Empire played into the Great War and of what significance the Ottoman Empire played in the " big picture" of the Great War. Alan Palmer did an excelent job of discussing only the end of the Ottoman Empire and answering all of my questions. Be forewarned about this book, I had to have a dictionary handy to get through each chapter. This book is not for someone that does not want to be challenged with new words. Unlike another review of this book, I found that the more I read and understood how Turkey fit into the European puzzle, I became more interested. True, my interest is very focused, however, this book provide the information I was looking for.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Factually accurate, but as dull as dishwater, August 28, 1998
By A Customer
Palmer's scholarship is immaculate, but this is one of the dullest books I've ever read. Let's hope that history professors overlook this book; it's the type of work that by itself could turn a student away from the study of history.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good overview of an Empire's painful decline, December 10, 2003
The Ottoman Empire was referred to "the Sick Man of Europe" in the mid-19th century, giving one the image of a decrepit old man with one foot in the grave - as indeed the Ottoman Empire was for over 100 years before its final, ignoble demise. Alan Palmer provides a good, if broad overview of the possible causes of the Muslim empire's death by a thousand cuts and the reasons why it took so long for it to finally dissolve. However, I found it lacking.
Palmer does an adequate job of outlining the major politcal reasons given for the decline. And for those seeking a an introduction into the last half of the Ottoman empire, this would be a good book to begin with. However, there is much that Palmer does not explore that merits some attention, even in a general history such as this.
For example, very little is mentioned of the Tanzimat Reforms, an attempt in the early 19th century by the Turks to modernize and industrialize along the lines of Europe after the Enlightenment. Similarly, Palmer would have been better served to disucss the role that the "Great Powers" of Europe played in simultaneously propping the Ottoman Empire up (as a balwark against the Russians) while assisting in tearing it down (by supporting the emergence of Balkan nation states.) to a greater degree.
I enjoyed _The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire_, but it did not do the subject matter justice.
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