On a Peace to End All Peace

This is, in general, a good general work on the diplomacy on the creation of the modern Middle East. However, it is not necessarily a good work of “Middle Eastern History” or “Middle Eastern Studies.” Essentially, it’s a study of the Middle East without Middle Easterners—whether they be Arabs, Persians, Turks, or one of the numerous other groups. Instead, the attention is laser-focused on what was happening within European imperial bureaucracies, especially the British. That isn’t a bad thing, per se, as it’s clear that Fromkin was purposely trying to write a diplomatic history for a popular audience, but it doesn’t quite offer the full picture either.