'A tour de force of accessible scholarship' The Guardian. Impressive ... It is a complicated story that still reverberates, and Gingeras narrates it with lucid authority New Statesman.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the main elements of European history from the Middle Ages. Extending from the Adriatic to the Indian Ocean, the Empire was both a major political entity and a religious one, with the Sultan governing the Holy Places and, as Caliph, being the successor of Muhammad.

However, the Empire's fateful decision to support Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914 condemned it to destruction, leading to its breakup into a series of European colonies and the independence of Saudi Arabia. Ryan Gingeras's new book explains how these momentous events happened and shows how much we still live in the shadow of decisions made so long ago.

Would the entire Empire collapse into the hands of invading Allied armies, or could something be saved? In such an ethnically and religiously complex region, what would be the price of creating a cohesive and independent new state? The story of the creation of modern Turkey is an outstanding, bitter epic narrative, recounted here in part.

Pages: 368, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm