Customer Reviews

The Decline & Fall of the Ottoman Empire

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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.

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.

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.

As an introduction to this subject, this book is a gem. What I liked most about it is the way Palmer elucidated the many forces, internal and external, that kept the Ottoman Empire alive for many, many decades after it could have disappeared. One is left with the impression that there was far more strength to this empire than is commonly believed. It turned out to be primarily a military empire whose armies remained formidably powerful for many, many centuries. As for the Sultanate and the Caliphate, what a story that is! These Ottoman princes lived out their lives in splendor and luxury known only, I suspect, to the Kings and Queens of France and England in the 16th and 17th centuries. Palmer tells a wonderful tale, and does it well.

Okay, I guess.

The book is horribly boring and a bit to pretentious. The book shines in the end (from the rule of the Triumveriate to the epilog), but until then it is plodding. After getting one-third of the way through, I put of finishing this book for 8 months and have no regrets.

If you like this peroid, there are two better books to read. The first is A HISTORY OF THE BALKAN PENNENSULA by Ferdinand Schevill, which in its 533 pages gives a better understanding of everyone (Bulgars, Vlachs, Byzantines, and Turks) in the area. The other is THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN TURKEY by Bernard Lewis. The latter is memorable if nothing more than its summary of Kemal Ataturk's "This is a hat" speech.

The book covers Ottoman Empire from 1650 to demise and founding of Modern Turkey. Included in the story the wars, internal problems, European politics against the empire, internal uprising, modernization efforts and all.There is nothing about scientific or cultural sides of the empire.Although mentiones but there is no extention into Modern Turkey.
There are some interesting stories that makes dry historical information a little juicy.
As I was reading the preface I was astonished author's reasoning using the name "Constantinople" in lieu of current name "Istanbul" for he claims that Istanbul is not in common usage in English, give me a break. Yes Ottomans did not use the name Istanbul for they were not a nation Empire and they did not change the name when they took the city Istanbul but since the introduction of concept "nationalism" into Ottoman Empire by foreign countries within last 150 years, the name was changed to Istanbul like it or not. From the introduction I could feel the bias author had that would effect the writing and that should not be in a scientific book.