War, Revolution and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908-1923

The Ottoman Endgame

'An outstanding history ... one of the best writers on the First World War' Simon Sebag Montefiore 
 
Shortlisted for the Duke of Westminster Medal for Military Literature 
 
The Ottoman Endgame is the first, and definitive, single-volume history of the Ottoman empire's agonising war for survival. Beginning with Italy's invasion of Ottoman Tripoli in September 1911, the Empire was in a permanent state of emergency, with hardly a frontier not under direct threat. Assailed by enemies on all sides, the Empire-which had for generations been assumed to be a rotten shell-proved to be strikingly resilient, beating off major attacks at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia before finally being brought down in the general ruin of the Central Powers in 1918. 
 
As the Europeans planned to partition all its lands between them and with even Istanbul seemingly helpless in the face of the triumphant Entente, an absolutely unexpected entity emerged: modern Turkey. Under the startling genius of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a powerful new state emerged from the Empire's fragments. 
 
This is the first time an author has woven the entire epic together from start to finish - and it will cause many readers to fundamentally re-evaluate their understanding of the conflict. The consequences, well into the 21st century, could not have been more momentous - with countries as various as Serbia, Greece, Libya, Armenia, Iraq and Syria still living with them.

There are many histories of World War One; few are as important or as readable as this one

It is an enormous story, and McMeekin is a worthy chronicler of it ... The Ottoman Endgame is the most satisfactory and thought-through of the recent books on the subject that I have seen

A wry, delightful book, which fills in a neglected face of the war and traces the emergence of the modern Middle East

A marvellous exposition of the historian's art

This readable, much-praised and opinionated work chronicles the Ottomans' entry into the war on Germany's side, its eventual defeat and its final dismemberment

A well-timed, well-researched exploration of the empire whose dissolution continues to complicate making sense of the contemporary Middle East. Herein are explanations of how modern Turkey, Iraq, and Syria came to be, as well as how the division of the rest of the region affected its future. Scholars and practitioners alike will benefit from reading it

Sean McMeekin is Professor of History at Bard College, New York. For some years he taught at Bilkent University, Ankara. His books include the highly successful The Berlin-Baghdad Express (Penguin), The Russian Origins of the First World War and The Ottoman Endgame (Penguin).

The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power, 1898-1918

The Berlin-Baghdad Express

In this excellent, well-researched and fascinating book, Sean McMeekin has given us a welcome and stimulating perspective on a highly important but neglected part of the First World War. His account of the Turco-German war effort is a tale of high adventure, ambition and political chicanery with a cast of colourful, brave and sometimes ruthless characters.

An exciting new book by a talented young historian

McMeekin adds a wealth of documentation...[t]he result is a captivating new history of the Eastern Front in the first world war

McMeekin has written an engaging history peopled with larger-than-life characters in exotic settings

McMeekin has written a powerful, overdue book that for many will open up a whole new side to the first world war.

In addition to bringing to life a fascinating episode in early 20th-century history, The Berlin-Baghdad Express contains several timely lessons and cautionary tales.

Sean McMeekin's account possesses the large merit that it tells a story little known to Western readers, drawing extensively upon German sources. It depicts a splendid cast of characters heroic in their endeavors if absurd in their lack of accomplishments.

Sean McMeekin has written two previous books, both published by Yale University Press: The Red Millionaire and History's Greatest Heist: The Looting of Russia by the Bolsheviks. He splits his time between the USA and Turkey.

WINNER OF THE BARBARA JELAVICH BOOK PRIZE 
 
'Sean McMeekin has written a classic of First World War history ... This superb and original book is the reality behind Greenmantle' Norman Stone 
 
The Berlin-Baghdad Express explores one of the big, previously unresearched subjects of the First World War: the German bid for world power - and the destruction of the British Empire - through the harnessing of the Ottoman Empire. 
 
McMeekin's book shows how incredibly high the stakes were in the Middle East - with the Germans in the tantalizing position of taking over the core of the British Empire via the extraordinary railway that would link Central Europe and the Persian Gulf. Germany sought the Ottoman Empire as an ally to create jihad against the British - whose Empire at the time was the largest Islamic power in the world. 
 
The Berlin-Baghdad Express is a fascinating account of western interference in the Middle East and its lamentable results. It explains and brings to life a massive area of fighting, which in most other accounts is restricted to the disaster at Gallipoli and the British invasions of Iraq and Palestine.

Sean McMeekin

A terrific read ... McMeekin is a superb writer. There isn't a boring page in the book. His breadth of approach, taking in events from Manchuria to Greece, as well as the main fronts, is refreshing ... When he is angry McMeekin can be magnificent.

Gripping, authoritative, accessible and always bracingly revisionist.

McMeekin's approach in Stalin's War is both original and refreshing and the book is written with a wonderful clarity.

Impressive, well researched and very well written ... McMeekin invites the reader to look at the history of the war from a vantage point rarely taken and appreciate the many tragedies and sad ironies of the grand alliance as it took shape and functioned during the war ... A new look at the conflict, which poses new questions and provides new and often unexpected answers to the old ones.

An accomplished, fearless and enthusiastic "Myth-buster", McMeekin hunts out the mistaken explanations of the past ... The story of the war itself is well told and impressive in its scope, ranging as it does from the domestic politics of small states such as Yugoslavia and Finland to the global context ... McMeekin is right that we have for too long cast the second world war as the good one. His book will make us re-evaluate the war and its consequences.

A sweeping reassessment of World War II seeking to "illuminate critical matters long obscured by the obsessively German-centric literature" on the subject ... Yet another winner for McMeekin ... Brilliantly contrarian history.

McMeekin draws from recently opened Soviet archives to shed light on Stalin's dark reasoning and shady tactics ... Packed with incisive character sketches and illuminating analyses of military and diplomatic maneuvers, this is a skillful and persuasive reframing of the causes, developments, and repercussions of WWII.

Brilliantly inquisitive ... This book makes the case that Adolf Hitler was within a whisker of winning the Second World War and failed to do so only because President Roosevelt came to the rescue of Joseph Stalin, Hitler's nemesis.

This book is a mammoth achievement in every sense.

Michael Brendan Dougherty, author of My Father Left Me Ireland

Sean McMeekin's new book fills a massive gap in the historiography of World War II. Based on exhaustive researches in Russian and other archives, his examination of Stalin's foreign policy explores fresh avenues and explodes many myths, perhaps most significant being that of unwittingly exaggerated emphasis on 'Hitler's war'. He shows conclusively that the two tyrants were equally responsible, both for the outbreak of war and the appalling slaughter which ensued.

Stalin's War is above all about strategy: the failure of Roosevelt and Churchill to make shrewd choices as World War II played out. McMeekin brilliantly argues that instead of weighting the European and Pacific theatres to favour their own interests - and weaken the inevitably antagonistic Soviet Union - FDR and Churchill left the most critical parts of Asia unguarded while they ground down the German army, a decision that favoured Stalin's interests far more than their own.

In this remarkable, ground-breaking new book Sean McMeekin marks a generational shift in our view of Stalin as an ally in the Second World War. Stalin's only difference from Hitler, he argues, was that he was a successful murderous predator. With Hitler dead and the Third Reich in ruins, Stalin created an immense new Communist empire. Among his holdings were Czechoslovakia and Poland, the fates of which had first set the West against the Nazis and, of course, China and North Korea, the ramifications of which we still live with today. 
 
 Until Barbarossa wrought a public relations miracle, turning him into a plucky ally of the West, Stalin had murdered millions, subverted every norm of international behaviour, invaded as many countries as Hitler had, and taken great swathes of territory he would continue to keep. In the larger sense the global conflict grew out of not only German and Japanese aggression but Stalin's manoeuvrings, orchestrated to provoke wars of attrition between the capitalist powers in Europe and in Asia. Above all, Stalin's War uncovers the shocking details of how the US government (to the detriment of itself and its other allies) fuelled Stalin's war machine, blindly agreeing to every Soviet demand, right down to agents supplying details of the atomic bomb.

Sean McMeekin

Praise for Stalin's War

A terrific read ... McMeekin is a superb writer. There isn't a boring page in the book. His breadth of approach, taking in events from Manchuria to Greece, as well as the main fronts, is refreshing ... ...

Gripping, authoritative, accessible and always bracingly revisionist.

**McMeekin's approach in Stalin's War is both original and refreshing and the book is written with a wonderful clarity.**

A terrific read ... McMeekin is a superb writer. There isn't a boring page in the book. His breadth of approach, taking in events from Manchuria to Greece, as well as the main fronts, is refreshing ... ...

Gripping, authoritative, accessible and always bracingly revisionist.

**McMeekin's approach in Stalin's War is both original and refreshing and the book is written with a wonderful clarity.**

A terrific read ... McMeekin is a superb writer. There isn't a boring page in the book. His breadth of approach, taking in events from Manchuria to Greece, as well as the main fronts, is refreshing ... ...

Gripping, authoritative, accessible and always bracingly revisionist.

**McMeekin's approach in Stalin's War is both original and refreshing and the book is written with a wonderful clarity.**

Books by Sean McMeekin

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