Fikriye Karaman

An equally problematic aspect of the book is its mere focus on the 19th century to explore the roots of the present conflicts in the region, which seems to attribute much, if not all, of the responsibility to the Ottoman context. By doing so, it reconstructs the Ottoman past through the national present to narrate a linear history of the nationalization of Middle Eastern identities while trying to deconstruct essentialist identity narratives of the Middle East. Instead of jumping from the immediate aftermath of WWI to the present, the author should have also engaged with the parameters of the 20th century, which have been substantially contributing to the homogenization of diversities, the construction of problematic national identities, and causing chronic crises in the region.

Inspired by the centenary of World War I (WWI), a plethora of history books have been released recently. This article reviews four of the latest studies on the Middle Eastern theater of WWI. Accelerating the fall of the Ottoman Empire and paving the way for the state system