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

The critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling account of how the modern Middle East came into being after World War I, and why it is in upheaval today.

The Middle East has long been a battleground of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and dynasties. All of these conflicts--including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis that have flared up yet again--stem from its political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed upon the region by the Allies after the First World War.

In A Peace to End All Peace, David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies came to remake the geography and politics of the Middle East, drawing lines on an empty map that eventually became the new countries of Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when everything--even an alliance between Arab nationalism and Zionism--seemed possible, Fromkin raises questions about what might have been done differently and answers questions about why things were done as they were. The current battle for a Palestinian homeland has its roots in these events of eighty-five years ago.