Barbara Jelavich Award

Sean McMeekin has written a classic work on the history of World War I. The Berlin-Baghdad Express explores one of the great, hitherto unresearched topics of World War I: the German effort for global power and the destruction of the British Empire through alliance with the Ottoman Empire.

McMeekin's book demonstrates how high the stakes were in the Middle East, with the Germans being in an advantageous position to take over the core of the British Empire through an exceptional railway line that would connect Central Europe with the Persian Gulf. Germany sought the Ottoman Empire as an ally to wage jihad, recognizing Britain as the greatest Islamic power of the time.

The Berlin-Baghdad Express is a fascinating narrative of Western intervention in the Middle East and its lamentable outcomes, explaining and highlighting a vast area of battles, which in many other accounts is limited to the destruction of Gallipoli and the British incursions into Iraq and Palestine.

Pages: 496, Dimensions: 13x13cm