- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Owl (April 22 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0805063420
- ISBN-13: 978-0805063424
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"A meditation on a vanished world that hovers like an apparition over today's grim headlines." -- The New York Times Book Review, front page
Book Description
For six hundred years, the Ottoman Empire swelled and declined. Islamic, martial, civilized, and tolerant, it advanced in three centuries from the dusty foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile; at its height, Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched the empire's aid. In its last three hundred years the empire seemed ready to collapse, a prodigy of survival and decay. In this dazzling evocation of the empire's power, Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose and how, against all odds, they lingered on. In doing so, he also offers a long look back to the origins of problems that plague present-day Kosovars and Serbs.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent capture of Ottoman Culture,
By
This review is from: Lords Of The Horizons: A fHistory Of The Ottoman Empire (Paperback)
The reviews here seem to be mixed between those who absolutely detested it, and those who love it. I find myself in the middle. As a history it falls short, but Goodwin is not a historian, nor is it (desspite the title) designed to be a history per se.There were certain aspects of the writer's work I find irritating. He makes more than a few rather "arch" references- most of which I got (as I have always had a thing for the Ottomans, and have read most of the major books about them), some of which I didn't. The ones I didn't get the author didn't make clear enough to pursue through other sources- so the reader with serious historical interest is left hanging. This is the greatest flaw of the book. The best point of the book, and the one which makes it a worthwile read, is the excellent way the author makes Ottoman culture come alive. He gives the reader a real sense of what it was to be an Ottoman, or at the very least to have lived among them. His description of physical places is good as well, he really captures the essence of places such as Topkapi. Even though I had been there years before reading the book, his metaphorical comparison of it to a camp of war tents made in stone articulated well the feel of the place, which I had sensed incoherently, but was made plaiin when I read it. Utimately, the book is frustrating because it is merely good, whereas in certain instances it has flashes of greatness.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Book is a Nice Memory,
By Charles T. Prather (South Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lords Of The Horizons: A fHistory Of The Ottoman Empire (Paperback)
To be truthful, the subtitle to this book should be something like "An Introduction to the History of the Ottoman Empire" The author tells the story in a rather chaotic fashion, not professional historian-like. I should know. I have been "teaching" "history" at a small college in the SW for over 30 years. So, when I say "history this is not," it is not something that I would think of as a professionally written/styled history book. It is better than that. It is a story of the history. It seems to have all the "high spots," but it tells them in a catching, romantic, and very readable style. It is better than history. It comes close to being good literature. --no, great literature. OK, so it is not great literature... Before reading this book I had not so much as touched anything on the Ottoman Empire. This book made me want to know more. It is good. Good Good Good
4.0 out of 5 stars
A beginning to further studies,
By A Customer
This review is from: Lords Of The Horizons: A fHistory Of The Ottoman Empire (Paperback)
Not be used as a study guide the book was wonderfull reading and gives you an idea of what the Ottomans were about.I would recommend this to anyone who is at the beginning of an exploration of the Ottoman empire. Some every day living details are pretty inaccurate but what the heck... you dont remember those parts at the end of the book anyway :)
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