Publication Date: 14/10/2021 ISBN: 9781473695702 Category:

The Ottomans

Marc David Baer

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication Date: 14/10/2021 ISBN: 9781473695702 Category:
Hardback

£30.00

Out of stock

Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE

‘Magnificent . . . Important and hugely readable’ William Dalrymple, Financial Times

‘A wildly ambitious and entertainingly lurid history’ James Barr, The Times

‘Highly readable . . . Baer’s fine book gives a panoramic and thought-provoking account of over half a millennium of Ottoman and – it now goes without saying – European history’ Guardian

‘A winning portrait of seven centuries of empire, teeming with life and colour, human interest and oddity, cruelty and oppression mixed with pleasure, benevolence and great artistic beauty’ Sunday Times

‘A superb, gripping and refreshing new history – finely written and filled with fascinating characters and analysis – that places the dynasty where it belongs: at the centre of European history’ Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and Jerusalem

‘A book as sweeping, colorful, and rich in extraordinary characters as the empire which it describes’ Tom Holland

The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic-Asian antithesis of the Christian, European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans’ multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe’s heart. Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans’ remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire, historian Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage. The Ottomans pioneered religious toleration even as they used religious conversion to integrate conquered peoples. But in the nineteenth century, they embraced exclusivity, leading to ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the empire’s demise after the First World War.

Upending Western accounts of the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration and the Reformation, The Ottomans vividly redefines the dynasty’s enduring impact on Europe and the world.

Publisher Review

A book as sweeping, colorful, and rich in extraordinary characters as the empire which it describes -- Tom Holland, author of Dominion A compellingly readable account of one of the great world empires from its origins in thirteenth century to modern times ... Blending the sacred and the profane, the social and the political, the sublime and the absurd, Baer brings his subject to life in rich vignettes. An outstanding book -- Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans Marc David Baer's The Ottomans is a scintillating and brilliantly panoramic account of the history of the Ottoman empire, from its genesis to its dissolution ... It challenges and transforms how we think of 'East' and 'West,' 'Enlightenment,' and 'modernity,' and directly confronts the horrors as well as the achievements of Ottoman rule -- Peter Sarris, University of Cambridge Baer's colourful, readable book is informed by all the newest research on his massive subject. In showing how an epic of universal empire, conquest and toleration turned into the drama of nationalism, crisis, and genocide, he gives us not only an expansive history of the Ottomans, but an expanded history of Europe. -- James McDougall, University of Oxford Expertly captures the undercurrents of Ottoman history ... There's no study more masterful -- Library Journal A superb, gripping and refreshing new history - finely written and filled with fascinating characters and analysis - that places the dynasty where it belongs: at the centre of European history -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and Jerusalem

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