A History of the Ottoman Empire

very informative. An easy read. Gave as gift.

The description of this book on Amazon and GoodReads is 100% accurate. The book is well written, informative, and takes a humanistic approach to its subject matter that I enjoyed and often find lacking in many history books. The approach gives the reader a glimpse into the national soul of an Ottoman citizen, particularly a citizen of Turkish decent. One comes away with a sense of the character of an Ottoman citizen and the Ottoman world outlook that also helps explain how the Empire was able to govern such a diverse group of peoples for so long.However, be warned that this is not intended as an introduction to the history of the Ottoman Empire. As advertised, if you consider it as a college history textbook, it is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. I do not think it is as accessible to the general reader as some of the academic reviewers suggest. The author assumes the reader has a basic understanding of the Empire's general formation, territory, diverse cultures and place in Islamic history. If one does not have such a basic understanding, one may spend a lot of time looking up events and people on Google to get a framework to better understand the context of what you are reading.

Great book concise well written great story telling

I was assigned this book for a college course.I like the prose- it's very readable. The images on pages frequently don't relate to the given text, though. Page 120, for example, is an image of one of the Pergamum Urns. The only place those urns are mentioned in the book is in that image.I have two suggestions for the editors/author.Please use more maps and include at least one map of the empire at its peak, with prominent cities labeled. A map section in the appendix with maps of the empire over the centuries (eg 14th century, 15th c, 16th...) would be helpful. Five of the ten maps in the text only look at Anatolia.I would have appreciated a timeline of significant events and people. I sometimes got lost in the sections- maybe it was my unfamiliarity with Ottoman Turkish names- and felt that a timeline would have been a nice reference.

It reads like a textbook. The back cover says it is a textbook. I did not know that before I ordered it.If you want a textbook, it is a good one. It's educational. It could use a glossary, though.

This doesn't seem to be a good beginning book on the topic of Ottoman History. It seems to presuppose a certain level of knowledge of the Ottoman Empire. It combines a narrative with cultural and financial/economic history - which is a good thing, but I think it's a book you would want to read after reading a more general History of the Empire.

The book incorrectly refers to the civil war involving Ottoman Armenians as "genocide" while ignoring the bloody outcomes of Armenian revolts and attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Turks and Kurds.

This is not a serious history volume but rather an introductory level textbook with quizzes and section notes. Not at all what I was expecting. Disappointing.