In light of the many texts that have been published recently which explore the vast history of the Ottoman Empire, a monograph has now appeared that focuses specifically upon making sense of roughly the last 150 years of the Empire’s existence. For the Ottomanist, this period is rich in available sources. Ottoman archival documents, newspapers, private papers of Ottoman statesmen and foreign diplomats/ expatriates, court records, etc., yield such a daunting volume of information that it can sometimes become overwhelming to try to decipher all of this material and to construct a coherent understanding of the events, the people, and the intellectual ideas that defined this “long 19th century.
Sina Akşin should be applauded in his effort to produce a book that explores the crucial transition period of the multi-ethnic, multi-religious Ottoman Empire into a vibrant nation-state, the Republic of Turkey, though the clearly articulated intention behind the writing of this book is perhaps its greatest shortcoming.