Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide (Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Stud) 1st Edition Edition

by
Guenter Lewy (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Guenter Lewy Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Guenter Lewy (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars 54 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0874808902
ISBN-10: 0874808901
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$8.06 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
$18.40 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open
More Buying Choices
32 New from $11.99 18 Used from $4.00
50 used & new from $4.00
See All Buying Options
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Prime Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Author interviews, book reviews, editors picks, and more. Read it now
$18.40 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 6 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide (Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Stud)
  • +
  • The Armenian Rebellion at Van (Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Stud)
Total price: $40.90
Buy the selected items together

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Series: Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Stud
  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: University of Utah Press; 1st Edition edition (October 23, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0874808901
  • ISBN-13: 978-0874808902
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,556,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsPossibly the most objective book of its kind
By J. Dauntless on October 15, 2008
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
An exceptional book in every aspect of this long running dispute!

When I decided to read an unbiased book on this complex tragic history of the past, I did a little research on the available material. I wanted to pick a book written by a credible western historian who has no ties to Armenian or Turkish side. I'm very glad I picked this one as it turned out to be a gem in more ways than I expected. Guenter Lewy is a much respected historian who previously researched and published various controversial cases of genocides ([...] This is his latest book on this extremely sensitive subject.

There is not a claim or quote in the book without pointing to the source (and there are hundreds of them). It certainly encourages the reader to read a few more of those referenced materials. The book has been divided to various sections to explain the events of the period as truthfully as possible, and to show the differences between the Armenian and Turkish views. You end up realizing that most claims are not usually as simple as you've been told and there are no blacks and whites but all shades of gray.

Before I bought this book, I also read the reviews on this page. Now, I've come to the conclusion that you would only give "one star" rating to this book if it conflicted with your agenda. The author does not hesitate to point out the lies and half-truths used by both sides of the dispute, and some people naturally take offense in that approach.

Read the book and develop your own opinion on an important piece of history that would likely be debated forever.
12 Comments 54 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Indispensible Resource on an Historic Controversy
By Stacey S. on December 21, 2005
Format: Hardcover
Reading books about the tragic experience of the Ottoman Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire is a sorrowful experience. I have read nearly two dozen and in none, whether the author is a Turk, an Armenian, or an American, is one presented with a rosy picture. Armenians suffered horribly, died in appalling numbers and were permanently separated from many of their traditional heartlands that they had shared, usually in peace, with local Turks, Kurds and others. Overwhelming evidence also portrays that the Armenians did not suffer alone, that the prosecution of World War I in the Ottoman Empire by its leaders was disastrous for the population at large. Nearly all accounts demonstrate that this was a hard era of state-on-state war, widespread famine, massacre and counter-massacre, and unabated disease.

Thus, given the breadth of suffering, I find it mystifying that this issue has so neatly cleaved the reading public into two distinct camps: those who interpret the Armenian experience as a genocide not just of a similar impact to the Holocaust, but analogous in its inception and execution; and those who interpret the Armenian experience as an immense tragedy made up of numerous crimes, but one that does not as a whole meet the internationally accepted definition of the term, "genocide." At one extreme are authors and their supporters who, favoring the genocide thesis, take no note of the role of Armenian revolutionary organizations, the attacks instigated by them on local Muslims and Ottoman troops, or the politics of the Ottoman leaders who were concerned with the imminent collapse on their watch of an empire that had lasted nearly 700 years.Read more ›
5 Comments 96 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsCalm in the Eye of the Storm
By J. H. Hall on December 16, 2006
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
To an outsider, Lewy's book seems a model of objectivity and balance and a sincere effort at unravelling the confusing strands of this story. It is his balanced view that seems to have incited the greatest criticism: the reviews tend to be all or nothing, love or hate, and the reviews appear to fall according to party lines, politics and nationality. To that extent it isn't the book, per se, that has been reviewed, but Lewy's politics, or lack thereof. In refusing to come down on the side of centrally coordinated genocide (as opposed to uncoordinated massacres) Lewy has incurred the wrath of those insisting on the label of "genocide."

Of particular interest, in light of a more recent book, was Lewy's note (p 262) that "...even as strong a defender of the Armenian position as the historian Taner Akcam has acknowledged the difference between the generally accepted historical reality of the Holocaust and the issue of the Armenian massacres."

Highly recommended to the non-partisan reader. The agreed-upon facts are horrible enough in their own right, and the political questions will likely never be settled to everyone's satisfaction.
Comment 74 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsAn objective, unbiased look at the avaialbe evidence of a great tragedy
By D. D. LeDu on January 6, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I begin this review with reservations. I have looked at the other reviews and know that those extremists on either side will vote "no" when asked if it were helpful.

I have read greatly on this subject, and have spent many months traversing back and forth through Turkey, staying in small villages and crawling through the brush. I specifically went to one small town to see an Armenian church, only to find that it had been blown up with dynamite two years before. My wife found the ruins of another, buried in the brambles in a draw well off a side road. I suppose it will eventually be obliterated as well.

We have found exhibits in museums that are entitled "The Armenian Genocide", but which contain only exhibits explaining that it was the Turks who were victims and the Armenians the perpetrators. All reference to Armenia has been erased; Even the ruin of the Armenian church in Ani is called merely a "Christian church". This has happened all over Turkey.

With this (and all pseudo "history" taught in Turkish schools), it is no wonder that the so-called "Turkish side" objects to this book. It certainly does not show the Ottomans in a good light, nor does it downplay the scope of the inhumanity that occurred. It is no wonder that a modern day Turk might find this book offensive.

On the other hand, conversations from the Armenian side seem to be dominated by extremists who will be satisfied by nothing less than full acceptance of all responsibility for a holocaust-like attempt at extermination, as well as the return of most of modern Turkey to Armenia (although the Armenians were not a majority in those regions), the forced deportation of modern Kurdish and Turkish occupants, and fantastic monetary awards.Read more ›
Comment 8 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsvery objective

a book that is a must-read before agreeing with either side. "He mainly focuses on the massacres in Ottoman Turkey, and strongly stands on the way of the truths which he finds from... Read more

Published on July 22, 2013 by s.a
5.0 out of 5 starsA must read..

A must read from an outsider (neither Turkish nor Armenian)... without armed with preoccupations... offering very very compelling evidences.. Read more

Published on December 25, 2011 by tarika
1.0 out of 5 starsLowy

Only University of Utah would publish such "academic" dropping. Not only it houses a whole program sponsored by the turkish government, almost all of the lowest of genocide deniers... Read more

Published on February 14, 2011 by aurai
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book, finally truth is comming out.

This is one of the few books out there which looks at the events from an objective angle. If your approach is to discover exactly what happened in 1915 and around that time frame... Read more

Published on October 1, 2010 by osman
5.0 out of 5 starsAn historical account depending on objective scientific documents and...

An historical account depending on objective scientific documents and archival materials. Since the author is neither Armenian nor Turk, his work should be seen as a primary source... Read more

Published on April 16, 2010 by Tolga Turan
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book that breaks through the Armenian propaganda lies.

I highly recommend this well written and well researched book to each and every person who wants to know the truth, instead of hearing the continuous, one-sided Armenian propagada... Read more

Published on November 28, 2009 by The Truth
5.0 out of 5 starsFinal Word

Lewy has done a phenomenal job in addressing this emotional issue and has taken great personal risk by sticking to the facts alone. Read more

Published on September 7, 2009 by Alaturka
1.0 out of 5 starsEternal Damnation of the Spotless Mind (Bernard-Henry Lévy)

Too smart to be worth its price. Endless discussion of figures, demographic developments, obsessed with proving a dogma the reader already knows before turning the first page -... Read more

Published on May 15, 2009 by R. Karayan
1.0 out of 5 starsMoney talks: this author is funded by the Turkish government

The Turkish government has been paying various so-called scholars to write books and articles "proving" the Armenian Genocide never happened. Read more

Published on June 13, 2008 by Soccer Mom
1.0 out of 5 starsRead the other side

Do not make any judgements on this book unless you have read any or all of the following books;
'Slaughterhouse Province' by Leslie Davis
'Days of Tragedy in Armenia'... Read more

Published on May 15, 2008 by elpasohye

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide (Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Stud)
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide (Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Stud)
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: world history