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51
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
41/100Critics
60/100Scholars
Author:
Marc David Baer
Publisher:
Basic Books
Date:
October 5, 2021
A British historian explores the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, tracing the dynasty's full history and its enduring impact on Europe and the world.
What The Reviewers Say
... highly readable.
Inevitably in books like this, the narrative shoals for long, wonderful stretches on personal stories. Ottoman history provides no shortage of larger-than-life homicidal maniacs whose stories make for very colorful reading.
... oversimplification or airy generalisation is never advisable. Unfortunately Baer is not always free from oversimplifications himself. The book is marred by a predictable anti-western slant, with the enlightened Ottomans often compared favourably to the backward or intolerant European Christians.
Mr. Baer...organizes his material according to contemporary concerns such as minorities, women and sexual mores, thereby eking out surprisingly fresh insights from this hitherto well-plowed terrain. He doesn’t ignore chronology, but his structuring principle is to reset the conventional narrative.
