The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920

The Fall of the Ottomans

*FULLY UPDATED WITH A NEW FOREWORD* 
 
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER 
 
WINNER OF THE BRITISH ARMY MILITARY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 
 
'Truly essential' Simon Sebag Montefiore 
 
The final destruction of the Ottoman Empire - one of the great epics of the First World War, from bestselling historian Eugene Rogan 
 
For some four centuries the Ottoman Empire had been one of the most powerful states in Europe as well as ruler of the Middle East. By 1914 it had been drastically weakened and circled by numerous predators waiting to finish it off. Following the Ottoman decision to join the First World War on the side of the Central Powers the British, French and Russians hatched a plan to finish the Ottomans off: an ambitious and unprecedented invasion of Gallipoli... 
 
Eugene Rogan's remarkable book recreates one of the most important but poorly understood fronts of the First World War. Despite fighting back with great skill and ferocity against the Allied onslaught and humiliating the British both at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia (Iraq), the Ottomans were ultimately defeated, clearing the way for the making, for better or worse, of a new Middle East which has endured to the present.

Eugene Rogan is author of the bestselling The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920. He is professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford and Director of the Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford.

Eugene Rogan's remarkable book recreates one of the most important but poorly understood fronts of the First World War. For four centuries the Ottoman Empire had been one of the most powerful states in Europe as well as ruler of the Middle East. By 1914 it had been drastically weakened and circled by numerous predators waiting to finish it off. Following the Ottoman decision to join the First World War on the side of the Central Powers, the British, French and Russians hatched a plan to finish the Ottomans off: an ambitious and unprecedented invasion of Gallipoli . . .

A History – Third Edition

The Arabs

A History – Revised and Updated Edition

THE THIRD EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, REVISED AND UPDATED 
 
'A rich, galloping narrative that spans the Arab world...outstanding, gripping and exuberant...full of flamboyant character sketches, witty asides and magisterial scholarship, that explains much of what we need to know about the world today' Simon Sebag Montefiore 
 
'Anyone who seeks to understand why the Islamic world bears a grudge against the West should read The Arabs' Sir Alaistair Horne 
 
Starting with the Ottoman conquests in the sixteenth century, this landmark book follows the story of the Arabs through the era of European imperialism and the Superpower rivalries of the Cold War, to the present age of unipolar American power. Drawing on the writings and eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the tumultuous years of Arab history, The Arabs balances different voices - politicians, intellectuals, students, men and women, poets and novelists, famous, infamous and the completely unknown - to give a rich, complex sense of life over nearly five centuries. 
 
Rogan's book is remarkable for its geographical sweep, covering the Arab world from North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, and for the depth in which it explores every facet of modern Arab history. Charting the evolution of Arab identity from Ottomanism to Arabism to Islamism, it covers themes including the conflict between national independence and foreign domination, the Arab-Israeli struggle and the peace process, Abdel Nasser and the rise of Arab Nationalism, the political and economic power of oil and the conflict between secular and Islamic values. 
 
This multilayered, fascinating and definitive work is the essential guide to understanding the history of the modern Arab world - and its future.

It is a fascinating [story], and exceedingly well told.

engrossing and capacious... compulsively readable

Rogan gives a lucid account of political developments throughout the Arab lands... One of the special features of this book is that it draws on Arab writings (by memoirists, journalists and others) to give an idea of how the Arabs have experienced their own history

Anyone who seeks to understand why the Islamic world bears a grudge against the West should read The Arabs.  Few scholars know their subject better than Eugene Rogan, while even fewer are capable of rendering so complex a subject so engagingly readable.  It is a joy to open, and a deprivation to put down.

Sir Alistair Horne, author of A Savage War of Peace

A rich, galloping narrative that spans the Arab world...outstanding, gripping and exuberant...full of flamboyant character sketches, witty asides and magisterial scholarship, that explains much of what we need to know about the world today

With eloquence, verve, and understanding, Eugene Rogan rightly reminds us that the world, and the Arabs themselves, need to remember the past. If we are to build a better relationship between the Arab world and the West, if we are to avoid making the same mistakes again and again, we need to know Arab history from its many high points to its low ones. I can think of no better guide on this crucially important journey than The Arabs.

Margaret Macmillan, author of Paris 1919 and Nixon and Mao

The masterly management of the material goes along with plain English, free of academic jargon.

Eugene Rogan is author of the bestselling The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920. He is professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford and Director of the Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford.

Eugene Rogan has written an authoritative new history of the Arabs in the modern world. Starting with the Ottoman conquests in the sixteenth century, this landmark book follows the story of the Arabs through the era of European imperialism and the Superpower rivalries of the Cold War, to the present age of unipolar American power. Drawing on the writings and eyewitness accounts of those who lived through the tumultuous years of Arab history, The Arabs balances different voices - politicians, intellectuals, students, men and women, poets and novelists, famous, infamous and the completely unknown - to give a rich, complex sense of life over nearly five centuries. 
 
Rogan's book is remarkable for its geographical sweep, covering the Arab world from North Africa through the Arabian Peninsula, and for the depth in which it explores every facet of modern Arab history. Charting the evolution of Arab identity from Ottomanism to Arabism to Islamism, it covers themes including the conflict between national independence and foreign domination, the Arab-Israeli struggle and the peace process, Abdel Nasser and the rise of Arab Nationalism, the political and economic power of oil and the conflict between secular and Islamic values.

Eugene Rogan

Compelling and authoritative, powerful in narrative, and filled with new revelations, this book offers a superb account of the 1860 Damascus massacres&mdash;much neglected nowadays but central to the creation of the modern Middle East

A surprising and enlightening account of how order was restored to the city after an eruption of violence in 1860... accessible, enlightening and ultimately surprising account of an episode of which most western readers will be unaware

In the hands of the distinguished historian and master storyteller Eugene Rogan, an incident of communal violence in Damascus in 1860 is at once an evocation of the vanished world of the Ottoman empire and an ominous foreshadowing of the communal violence tearing apart the Middle East of today

A stunning portrait of the Ottoman Empire and of Damascus during a time of crisis. Absolutely riveting

This book stands out for its impeccable scholarship, gripping narrative and captivating prose. There is a great deal of new material here that not only brings events alive, but also leads to fresh assessments of one of the most momentous events in modern Arab history. Rogan uses the full panoply of primary sources in French, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic to brilliantly illuminating effect. A remarkable book by a remarkable historian

[A] magnificent new book... Rogan’s account highlights just how deadly the combination of inter-communal tensions and incompetent leadership can be, especially in a city as diverse as nineteenth-century Damascus. But he also offers a message of hope and humanity, and a lesson about the capacity of fractured societies to reconcile and rebuild

Rogan zooms in and brilliantly captures the tragic outcome of this inter-imperialist struggle

The 1860 Massacre and the Destruction of the Old Ottoman World

This remarkable book recreates one of the watershed moments in the history of the Middle East: the ferocious outbreaks of disorder across the Levant in 1860 which resulted in the massacre of thousands of Christians in Damascus. 
 
Eugene Rogan brilliantly recreates the lost world of the Middle East under Ottoman rule. The once mighty empire was under pressure from global economic change and European imperial expansion. Reforms in the mid-nineteenth century raised tensions across the empire, nowhere more so than in Damascus. A multifarious city linked by caravan trade to Baghdad, the Mediterranean and Mecca, the chaos of languages, customs and beliefs made Damascus a warily tolerant place. Until the reforms began to advantage the minority Christian community at the expense of the Muslim majority. 
 
But in 1860 people who had generally lived side by side for generations became bitter enemies as news of civil war in Mount Lebanon arrived in the city. Under the threat of a French expeditionary force, the Ottomans dealt with the disaster effectively and ruthlessly - but the old, generally quite tolerant Damascene world lay in ruins. It would take a quarter of a century to restore stability and prosperity to the Syrian capital. 
 
This is both an essential book for understanding the emergence of the modern Middle East from the destruction of the old Ottoman world, and a uniquely gripping story.

Eugene Rogan

Praise for The Damascus Events

Compelling and authoritative, powerful in narrative, and filled with new revelations, this book offers a superb account of the 1860 Damascus massacres—much neglected nowadays but central to the creation of the ...

A surprising and enlightening account of how order was restored to the city after an eruption of violence in 1860... accessible, enlightening and ultimately surprising account of an episode of which most western rea ...

In the hands of the distinguished historian and master storyteller Eugene Rogan, an incident of communal violence in Damascus in 1860 is at once an evocation of the vanished world of the Ottoman empire and an ominou ...

Compelling and authoritative, powerful in narrative, and filled with new revelations, this book offers a superb account of the 1860 Damascus massacres—much neglected nowadays but central to the creation of the ...

A surprising and enlightening account of how order was restored to the city after an eruption of violence in 1860... accessible, enlightening and ultimately surprising account of an episode of which most western rea ...

In the hands of the distinguished historian and master storyteller Eugene Rogan, an incident of communal violence in Damascus in 1860 is at once an evocation of the vanished world of the Ottoman empire and an ominou ...

Compelling and authoritative, powerful in narrative, and filled with new revelations, this book offers a superb account of the 1860 Damascus massacres—much neglected nowadays but central to the creation of the ...

A surprising and enlightening account of how order was restored to the city after an eruption of violence in 1860... accessible, enlightening and ultimately surprising account of an episode of which most western rea ...

In the hands of the distinguished historian and master storyteller Eugene Rogan, an incident of communal violence in Damascus in 1860 is at once an evocation of the vanished world of the Ottoman empire and an ominou ...

Books by Eugene Rogan

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