Book description
This vividly detailed revisionist history opens a new vista on the great Ottoman Empire in the early nineteenth century, a key period often seen as the eve of Tanzimat westernizing reforms and the beginning of three distinct histories - ethnic nationalism in the Balkans, imperial modernization from Istanbul, and European…
Why read it?
1 author picked Biography of an Empire as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I was impressed by how she used one life to tell the story of a whole Empire. I learned and I also relaxed as she took me through the Ottoman Empire and showed me how people could be cosmopolitan and tolerant.
I had grown up with stories of violent Turks, and here I had people doing what they could to keep the peace and keep the empire together. It was a different world. We know that they failed, and we should wonder why.
From Yanni's list on mass violence in history.
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