A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin

It might be because I’m an impatient reader. My gut reaction after completing this book was one that I have had several times before; I felt this book could have been twice as good if it were about half as long.  This book really does a great job telling a part of world history that tends to be a bit overshadowed. While reading, I utilized the e-book highlighting tool more than any other book that I have ever read. I came across so many poignant observations and anecdotes.  On the other hand, there were also many chapters that got so bogged down with minutiae that I struggled to stay focused and ended up simply skimming through said chapters.

When one thinks of World War I, the countries of Britain, Germany, and France are probably the first nations that one recalls.  Even the United States didn’t get involved until one year prior to its conclusion. One rarely thinks of the ‘smaller’ countries and empires, yet there were so many that were involved.  The focus on this book is the Ottoman Empire, which was dealing with its own internal conflicts before and during the war. The Ottoman Empire was a vast geographical part of Europe which now constitutes what is known as ‘The Middle East’.  Because of all the turmoil in this region before, during, and after the ‘War to End All Wars’, the author argues that the war ultimately set the stage for this region that still exists today, and most would agree that the Middle East has metamorphosed into a hotbed of religious extremism and political instability.

The argument the author makes is a good one, it just seems as though he drones on too long.  True, there’s a lot of ground to cover, a lot of regions within the Ottoman Empire, and a lot of personalities involved in this tale.  Because of the influence of the European Powers during this time, we also read about plenty of the key figures from places such as Russia, Germany, and especially England. England had the strongest imperialistic widespread empire at the time, so they felt they had a strong hand in this particular game.  When so many nations with different goals and motivations clash, nothing good is likely to happen, and this seems to be the case a few short years after World War I ends. The narrative in this book essentially ends around 1922.

Although the author doesn’t explicitly state it, the really sad thing about the first world war is that the motivations for fighting were basically based on territorial greed. There weren’t really any altruistic motivating factors for any of the nations that got involved.  It was basically a global gang fight that began when one gang member kills a leader of a rival gang, and the sides are quickly drawn up. Then, four years of the worst blood-filled conflict the world ever knew occurred.  During the ongoing fighting, the Ottoman Empire seems to serve no other purpose than ‘more territory’ for the winner of the war to grab and secure.  It really was a sad mess.

The author also picks a title for this book that wasn’t an uncommon saying at the time “A Peace to End All Peace”.  This was an ironic moniker that others dubbed the final Versailles peace treaty since the winners left the losers (Germany) in such a shamble.  The thought among those who knew better was that Germany would never be able to properly rebuild based on the punishment inflicted on them detailed in the surrender terms.  These skeptics were correct since the Versailles treaty basically gave rise to a demented Bavarian watercolorist named Adolph Hitler. This led to the next world war, which ended up cataclysmically dwarfing its predecessor.  The author uses this title to describe the Ottoman Empire post 1922, but history has shown it simply wasn’t limited to this one geography.

Again, the author accomplishes his goals quite handily, and I doubt that there is any scholar that would debate his conclusion, so he does deserve credit for educating readers about history that needs to be taught.  I just wish he could have been a tad more concise and shaved this thing by a couple hundred pages.

Still, a great learning history lesson for many; including myself.