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A review by hannicogood
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and The Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin
3.0
Some warnings about this book: first, the author is not a historian and this book was done in the 1980s I believe. It does not have some of the more up-to-date language one might expect (one example is the use of the term native - it seems to have fallen out of use in more recent times due to certain negative connotations). Keep this in mind.
Second, if you are going to read this based solely on shorter summaries, you may not be aware that it’s a very British viewpoint we are receiving. I didn’t expect to have that going in and it doesn’t make the book bad, but if you’re expecting in-depth detail about politics from all sides of the conflict, you will want to supplement with other sources. We do get summaries of what is going on in the governments outside Britain, but British figures are the main actors in this telling.
Third, it’s not the most gripping writing. I’ve read historic works that flow more easily. It took me nearly six months to read this as at some points I would only read five pages in a week. Just something to be aware of.
For all I’ve listed here, this book still has a lot of information and doesn’t expect the reader to have a basic understanding of the issue, so you can go in to this as a novice. This work taught me many many things I didn’t know, but it’s not without it’s issues.
Second, if you are going to read this based solely on shorter summaries, you may not be aware that it’s a very British viewpoint we are receiving. I didn’t expect to have that going in and it doesn’t make the book bad, but if you’re expecting in-depth detail about politics from all sides of the conflict, you will want to supplement with other sources. We do get summaries of what is going on in the governments outside Britain, but British figures are the main actors in this telling.
Third, it’s not the most gripping writing. I’ve read historic works that flow more easily. It took me nearly six months to read this as at some points I would only read five pages in a week. Just something to be aware of.
For all I’ve listed here, this book still has a lot of information and doesn’t expect the reader to have a basic understanding of the issue, so you can go in to this as a novice. This work taught me many many things I didn’t know, but it’s not without it’s issues.