The End of the Ottoman Empire and the Forging of the Modern Middle East

"The internal dynamics of the modern Middle East can only be comprehended by a full understanding of its Ottoman past. Despite this fact, the starting point of a great majority of the general works on the subject is the Sykes-Picot agreement with a few random references to the Ottoman dissolution. . . . The End of the Ottoman Empire and the Forging of the Modern Middle East is an excellent attempt to remedy this shortcoming in the scholarship. This informative, analytical, and limpid study weaves a detailed tale of the emergence of the new Middle East by situating it within a long durée of imperial and post-imperial structures."
—M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, Princeton University

"An invaluable contribution to an understanding of the modern Middle East. Better than any other book, it disabuses us of some of the ethnocentric views of the Ottoman Empire, such as the 'sick man of Europe' construct, instead suggesting that certain key decisions on the part of Ottoman leaders contributed to its demise."
—Ross Harrison, Senior Fellow, Middle East Institute, Washington D.C.

“Using 34 wisely selected documents to buttress a sweeping account of the origins of the modern Middle East, authors Bunton and Wender (both, University of Victoria, Canada) offer readers invaluable background information to an otherwise complex historical process. Resourcing material that spans critical moments from the beginning of the Ottoman Empire's collapse to the early 20th century, this short book more than adequately serves the purpose of providing readers with a background to understand more recent events in the region. Critically distinctive of past works that aimed similarly to explain the modern Middle East, this volume helpfully guides readers around the debilitating assertions of a predetermined rise of Europe at the expense of the region's peoples. Indeed, the well-documented examples of Ottoman decision-makers contributing to the modern history of the region reinforce the underlying lesson young students hopefully will take away from this well-crafted survey. With the Ottoman Empire and its ethnically diverse leadership guiding the Middle East toward WW I, the resulting calamities that initiated the modern era for the region and the larger world prove more complex. As such, the book provides better starting points to teach world history afresh.” 
—I. Blumi, Stockholm University, in CHOICE