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

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Published with a new afterword from the author—the classic, bestselling account of how the modern Middle East was created The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts—including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis, and the violent challenges posed by Iraq's competing sects—are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War. In A Peace to End All Peace , David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies drew lines on an empty map that remade the geography and politics of the Middle East. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all seemed possible, he delivers in this sweeping and magisterial book the definitive account of this defining time, showing how the choices narrowed and the Middle East began along a road that led to the conflicts and confusion that continue to this day. A new afterword from Fromkin, written for this edition of the book, includes his invaluable, updated assessment of this region of the world today, and on what this history has to teach us.

Review: Excellent Journalistic Summary of the "Settlement of 1922" - A Peace to End All Peace covers the events leading up to what Fromkin calls the "Settlement of 1922," when the political boundaries and institutions that were to predominate in the Middle East for most of the next century took shape. The book details the many factors involved, such as the rise of Zionism, the exaggerated sense of importance to the war effort of both Jews and Arabs that predominated in Europe, and the personal ambitions of the many actors on the stage, from Winston Churchill to Sherif Hussein, that led to these fateful outcomes. Fromkin argues in this book that the modern Middle East was created in large part by the actions of a few European countries during the crucial years of 1914 to 1922. Although the book's account ends in 1922 and Fromkin does not even mention the current problems in the Middle East, the implication is that the establishment of arbitrary boundaries for Arab states, the creation of the state of Israel, and the aggravation of hostile sentiments that resulted from cynical political maneuvers on the part of European states to a great degree precipitated the current crises. Indeed, the book jacket declares that "Fromkin shows how the choices narrowed and the Middle East began along a road that led to the endless wars and the escalating acts of terrorism that continue to this day." The main text of A Peace to End All Peace is over 500 pages long, dealing in painstaking detail with the events that led up to the treaties that ended the First World War. It is in some senses a work of journalism, offering a sort of objective play-by-play of events without a great deal of analysis. The benefit of this approach is that the author's biases do not often come through, and the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions regarding the causes of events. The drawback is that the reader cannot easily draw any general inferences which are necessary for understanding the topic as a whole. In addition, by concentrating so much on details to the exclusion of general trends, Fromkin does not always make it clear whether a certain event was merely the result of a series of accidents, or whether it was bound to occur in any case. Again, this is partly a result of his predilection for a character-driven narrative. The narrative is very well-written, engaging and easy to follow. It is accessible, not assuming a great deal of familiarity of the subject material (the maps at the beginning of the book are invaluable), and logically organized, following events chronologically within a larger thematic structure. Particularly helpful is the way Fromkin will parenthetically re-introduce a person that we have met earlier, rather than expecting the reader to remember the dozens of characters that weave in and out of the narrative. The characters are given depth and motivation, without erring into presumptive amateur psychoanalysis or pseudo-historical "reconstructed" dialogue. Events are related primarily from the British (and particularly Churchill's) perspective, which is somewhat puzzling given the fact that most of the important events actually occurred in the Middle East, and that the roles in these events of Russia and France were nearly as important as Britain's. The book is well-researched and copiously documented, relying on a balance of primary and secondary sources, but most of the these are British in origin and outlook. As mentioned earlier, the book also relies strongly on accounts of the actions and beliefs of certain key individuals (again, mostly British), as opposed to broader movements. As there is little analysis in the book, there is not much room for controversy. Occasionally Fromkin will mention alternative versions of events, but the variances are generally tangential to the main narrative. He is painstakingly objective for the most part (although one can sense some sympathy in his viewpoint for the objectives of Zionism). I suspect that this book will hold up well over time, in part because Fromkin focuses so closely on the individuals in the story whose experiences resonate universally, rather than adopting a broader outlook that would reveal more of the prejudices of our time. This is overall an excellent book, and certainly invaluable for understanding current events in the Middle East. Upon finishing it, one is left wishing for a broader account of the background of some of the movements and forces that are presented fully formed in Fromkin's narrative, but that is as much an endorsement as a criticism: A 500 page book that leaves one wanting more is a rarity.
Review: A history book that ignores history - Fromkin is to be commended for a compilation of historical facts in great detail and thoroughness that I can only envy. This book must have been a great burden to assemble, and the facts that Fromkin has detailed, and put into much better perspective than most of his fellow historians of the period, are very important to understand his title of "The Peace to End all Peace". Some of the best sections deal with the trade-offs of the various governments after WW I who were exhausted and in financial ruin, or who just abandoned their greater responsibilities, like the USA. The whole issue of the "Jewish Conspiracy" of the Bolshevik revolution, anti-Semitism, Zionism, is dealt with in a very open and refreshing way. But the problem with most of these books, whether it is Macmillan's "1919", or Kagan's "On the Origins of War", and other extraordinarily well researched and wonderful books is that they seem to be writing for an audience of their fellow academics and fail to understand the need for modern day historians to place history into proper perspective. I shouldn't pick on Fromkin because he is no more guilty of this than the hundreds of other authors of similar books, but after reading this wonderful book, I felt the same way I do two hours after a totally filling Chinese meal at my favorite restaurant across the street from my home. I'm hungry again. The essential conundrum that this book details is that the Balfour Declaration has set in place a situation where we have had, and probably will have, perpetual war in the Middle East. This conflict has now expanded all around the world, from the World Trade Center, Bali, Madrid, Kenya, Tanzania, etc and the dilemma for Western society is whether to abandon Israel and the Zionist dream in hopes that the Islamist fanatics will go back into their caves, or whether mankind can advance in an area which Islam has held the power for well over a millennium. Fromkin completely skates around this issue. While I am sure there is some lunchroom or annual convention somewhere where a bunch of academics who live their lives in minutia give points to the author of the book with the most extensive bibliography, they really fail the greater society in producing studies of historical value that places things such as WW I, the fall of the Ottoman Empire (or any other empire) in perspective. While they may argue that such was not the purpose of their book, in fact, much of history is an indictment of human nature to have to relive history over and over again. Historians need to get out of their shell and recognize the forest for the trees. If their works are to have any real value at all, it must be that they are written to advance mankind and not have us read such books and observe how foolish our ancestors were. We know that. What a historian needs to do to be relevant is show us the common threads of the past so that we can avoid that path in the future. The fall of the Ottoman, Hapsburg, and other empires is really no different that that of Rome, the Greeks, the Tatars and the Khans, but seldom do you read a book that shows just how much of a treadmill this is for mankind. Churchill stood alone against the Nazis while the USA slept, and Bush if fighting the same ostriches who think that the Islamist fascists are somehow different, but on one connects the dots. If you want to read a book that shows what an extraordinary scholar Fromkin is, and he is, this is a great book to read, even though it will take a long time to do so. If you want to read something that lifts you past the compilation of facts and details of the past and gives you something to think about how to shape the future so that we don't have to keep going "one step forward and two steps back", I recommend Harris' "Civilization and its Enemies" book as a much better use of your time.

## Features

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## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #113,295 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) #6 in History of Turkey & the Ottoman empire #19 in Turkey History (Books) #42 in History of Israel & Palestine |

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent Journalistic Summary of the "Settlement of 1922"
*by R***E on August 24, 2003*

A Peace to End All Peace covers the events leading up to what Fromkin calls the "Settlement of 1922," when the political boundaries and institutions that were to predominate in the Middle East for most of the next century took shape. The book details the many factors involved, such as the rise of Zionism, the exaggerated sense of importance to the war effort of both Jews and Arabs that predominated in Europe, and the personal ambitions of the many actors on the stage, from Winston Churchill to Sherif Hussein, that led to these fateful outcomes. Fromkin argues in this book that the modern Middle East was created in large part by the actions of a few European countries during the crucial years of 1914 to 1922. Although the book's account ends in 1922 and Fromkin does not even mention the current problems in the Middle East, the implication is that the establishment of arbitrary boundaries for Arab states, the creation of the state of Israel, and the aggravation of hostile sentiments that resulted from cynical political maneuvers on the part of European states to a great degree precipitated the current crises. Indeed, the book jacket declares that "Fromkin shows how the choices narrowed and the Middle East began along a road that led to the endless wars and the escalating acts of terrorism that continue to this day." The main text of A Peace to End All Peace is over 500 pages long, dealing in painstaking detail with the events that led up to the treaties that ended the First World War. It is in some senses a work of journalism, offering a sort of objective play-by-play of events without a great deal of analysis. The benefit of this approach is that the author's biases do not often come through, and the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions regarding the causes of events. The drawback is that the reader cannot easily draw any general inferences which are necessary for understanding the topic as a whole. In addition, by concentrating so much on details to the exclusion of general trends, Fromkin does not always make it clear whether a certain event was merely the result of a series of accidents, or whether it was bound to occur in any case. Again, this is partly a result of his predilection for a character-driven narrative. The narrative is very well-written, engaging and easy to follow. It is accessible, not assuming a great deal of familiarity of the subject material (the maps at the beginning of the book are invaluable), and logically organized, following events chronologically within a larger thematic structure. Particularly helpful is the way Fromkin will parenthetically re-introduce a person that we have met earlier, rather than expecting the reader to remember the dozens of characters that weave in and out of the narrative. The characters are given depth and motivation, without erring into presumptive amateur psychoanalysis or pseudo-historical "reconstructed" dialogue. Events are related primarily from the British (and particularly Churchill's) perspective, which is somewhat puzzling given the fact that most of the important events actually occurred in the Middle East, and that the roles in these events of Russia and France were nearly as important as Britain's. The book is well-researched and copiously documented, relying on a balance of primary and secondary sources, but most of the these are British in origin and outlook. As mentioned earlier, the book also relies strongly on accounts of the actions and beliefs of certain key individuals (again, mostly British), as opposed to broader movements. As there is little analysis in the book, there is not much room for controversy. Occasionally Fromkin will mention alternative versions of events, but the variances are generally tangential to the main narrative. He is painstakingly objective for the most part (although one can sense some sympathy in his viewpoint for the objectives of Zionism). I suspect that this book will hold up well over time, in part because Fromkin focuses so closely on the individuals in the story whose experiences resonate universally, rather than adopting a broader outlook that would reveal more of the prejudices of our time. This is overall an excellent book, and certainly invaluable for understanding current events in the Middle East. Upon finishing it, one is left wishing for a broader account of the background of some of the movements and forces that are presented fully formed in Fromkin's narrative, but that is as much an endorsement as a criticism: A 500 page book that leaves one wanting more is a rarity.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A history book that ignores history
*by J***S on October 13, 2004*

Fromkin is to be commended for a compilation of historical facts in great detail and thoroughness that I can only envy. This book must have been a great burden to assemble, and the facts that Fromkin has detailed, and put into much better perspective than most of his fellow historians of the period, are very important to understand his title of "The Peace to End all Peace". Some of the best sections deal with the trade-offs of the various governments after WW I who were exhausted and in financial ruin, or who just abandoned their greater responsibilities, like the USA. The whole issue of the "Jewish Conspiracy" of the Bolshevik revolution, anti-Semitism, Zionism, is dealt with in a very open and refreshing way. But the problem with most of these books, whether it is Macmillan's "1919", or Kagan's "On the Origins of War", and other extraordinarily well researched and wonderful books is that they seem to be writing for an audience of their fellow academics and fail to understand the need for modern day historians to place history into proper perspective. I shouldn't pick on Fromkin because he is no more guilty of this than the hundreds of other authors of similar books, but after reading this wonderful book, I felt the same way I do two hours after a totally filling Chinese meal at my favorite restaurant across the street from my home. I'm hungry again. The essential conundrum that this book details is that the Balfour Declaration has set in place a situation where we have had, and probably will have, perpetual war in the Middle East. This conflict has now expanded all around the world, from the World Trade Center, Bali, Madrid, Kenya, Tanzania, etc and the dilemma for Western society is whether to abandon Israel and the Zionist dream in hopes that the Islamist fanatics will go back into their caves, or whether mankind can advance in an area which Islam has held the power for well over a millennium. Fromkin completely skates around this issue. While I am sure there is some lunchroom or annual convention somewhere where a bunch of academics who live their lives in minutia give points to the author of the book with the most extensive bibliography, they really fail the greater society in producing studies of historical value that places things such as WW I, the fall of the Ottoman Empire (or any other empire) in perspective. While they may argue that such was not the purpose of their book, in fact, much of history is an indictment of human nature to have to relive history over and over again. Historians need to get out of their shell and recognize the forest for the trees. If their works are to have any real value at all, it must be that they are written to advance mankind and not have us read such books and observe how foolish our ancestors were. We know that. What a historian needs to do to be relevant is show us the common threads of the past so that we can avoid that path in the future. The fall of the Ottoman, Hapsburg, and other empires is really no different that that of Rome, the Greeks, the Tatars and the Khans, but seldom do you read a book that shows just how much of a treadmill this is for mankind. Churchill stood alone against the Nazis while the USA slept, and Bush if fighting the same ostriches who think that the Islamist fascists are somehow different, but on one connects the dots. If you want to read a book that shows what an extraordinary scholar Fromkin is, and he is, this is a great book to read, even though it will take a long time to do so. If you want to read something that lifts you past the compilation of facts and details of the past and gives you something to think about how to shape the future so that we don't have to keep going "one step forward and two steps back", I recommend Harris' "Civilization and its Enemies" book as a much better use of your time.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A fascinating, thorough account of how the modern Middle East came to be
*by V***N on November 9, 2014*

This is a fascinating book. It's probably fairly common knowledge that the modern national boundaries of the Middle East were imposed by the Allies after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI, but for me (and I'm guessing most people), this was a pretty vague knowledge. This book gives a very thorough account of what that means, how it came about, and its implications, starting from how the Ottoman Empire entered the war and continuing through the Settlement of 1922. The lessons of the book are still highly relevant today (depressingly so, in fact), and indeed, the author provides an afterward to the 2009 edition (the book was originally published in 1989) that draws a clear line from the events 100 years ago to more recent infamous events. Despite covering such a complex subject so thoroughly, this is a very readable book. Fromkin organizes the book well, concentrating on particular spheres of action methodically in succession, but I think what really drives its readability is how he focuses the action around a succession of the interesting and influential characters -- people such as Churchill, Kitchener, Lawrence, Lloyd George, and Mark Sykes. The book thereby becomes more than an extensive litany of events and facts, it becomes a succession of characters studies and personal stories, just enough to draw in the reader, but not so much as to overshadow the events and facts. That said, the book is very long, and the device loses steam as Fromkin runs out of new characters to introduce, but I hardly think anyone could pull the subject into readable form any better while retaining all the density and comprehensiveness required by the subject. Throughout, one gets a good sense for the fundamentally condescending and sometimes just plain mistaken attitudes and policies of the Western powers towards the Middle East. International diplomacy is frighteningly error prone for something so impactful, and the best laid plans go awry as a matter of course. At the end, the situation dissolves into a mess of ruined political careers, face-saving, and not-so-graceful exits as the Allies realize the economic limits of military power and face the realities of trying to hold the prizes they had claimed. The final chapter ties it up well, providing summary and perspective. The Allies tried to impose European-style, nationalistic, secular statism where loyalties were more sectarian and local. Fundamentally, it did not fit, not to mention the bungled execution as they imposed rulers more to appease their political alliances than to serve the local people. Moreover, they did so in the last throes of the imperialistic impulse which they had been used to, but then they could not follow through on the impulse as the imperial eras were on the wane for many powers. In other words, they completely disrupted the region but had no capability to hold it together afterwards. Does any of this sound familiar?

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