This book's full title is The Ottoman Endgame: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, 1908 to 1923. This was a great history book. It is well-written and easy to follow. I have read a lot of history, but there are gaping holes in my knowledge of history in certain parts of the world. He also covers the Balkan and Russia besides the Ottoman Empire. It did seem to end rather abruptly.
The Guardian often has very good reviews of history books and this by Christopher de Bellaigue is certain one. There is another interesting review on the Economist. There is also an interesting review by Dr. Kate Fleet on the site Reviews in History. She complains the lack of Turkish sources in McMeekin's book. There are also some great reviews at Good Reads.
In this video, Sean McMeekin talks about WWI called "An Avoidable Catastrophe". In another video, M. Hakan Yavuz, Mehmet Arisan, and Ramazan Hakki Oztan talk about Ottoman Empire and the First World War. There is no video with McMeekin talking about this book.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Thursday, June 2, 2016
The Fortunes of Africa by Martin Meredith
This book's full title is The Fortunes of Africa, A 5000 Year History of Wealth, Greed and Endeavour. This book is basically how Africa has plundered over the past 5000 years. Africa is a vast continent and to do an overview of it you probably need a theme. The plundering has been down local rules and foreign adventurers.
I have always been interested in Egypt and Egyptian history. He talks about the Arabs invading Egypt in 639 AD and they replaced the Roman Overlords. He says within a century Egypt changes because over a million Arab immigrants go to Egypt and many Egyptians adopt Islam and business is done in Arabic. By 750AD only a third of the population is Coptic Christians and Coptic has become a liturgical language.
Howard French gives a good review of this book on the Wall Street Journal. There is also an excellent review at The Economist. As with all Economist article, there is no name of reviewer given. I often go to look at the reviews at Good Reads. The reviews are often varied and well written.
Martin Meredith is interviews on SABC Digital News . Bruce Whitfield interviews Martin Meredith on CNBC Africa. This is an interview of Martin Meredith at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Kgosi Monametsi.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
I have always been interested in Egypt and Egyptian history. He talks about the Arabs invading Egypt in 639 AD and they replaced the Roman Overlords. He says within a century Egypt changes because over a million Arab immigrants go to Egypt and many Egyptians adopt Islam and business is done in Arabic. By 750AD only a third of the population is Coptic Christians and Coptic has become a liturgical language.
Howard French gives a good review of this book on the Wall Street Journal. There is also an excellent review at The Economist. As with all Economist article, there is no name of reviewer given. I often go to look at the reviews at Good Reads. The reviews are often varied and well written.
Martin Meredith is interviews on SABC Digital News . Bruce Whitfield interviews Martin Meredith on CNBC Africa. This is an interview of Martin Meredith at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Kgosi Monametsi.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
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