The Berlin-Baghdad Express : The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power, 1898-1918

Author: McMeekin, Sean

Germany

Published on 28 April 2011 by Penguin Books Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 496 pages, 2 x 8 b&w inset
198 x 129 x 23 | 344g

WINNER OF THE BARBARA JELAVICH BOOK PRIZE'Sean McMeekin has written a classic of First World War history ... This superb and original book is the reality behind Greenmantle' Norman StoneThe Berlin-Baghdad Express explores one of the big, previously unresearched subjects of the First World War: the German bid for world power - and the destruction of the British Empire - through the harnessing of the Ottoman Empire. McMeekin's book shows how incredibly high the stakes were in the Middle East - with the Germans in the tantalizing position of taking over the core of the British Empire via the extraordinary railway that would link Central Europe and the Persian Gulf. Germany sought the Ottoman Empire as an ally to create jihad against the British - whose Empire at the time was the largest Islamic power in the world.

The Berlin-Baghdad Express is a fascinating account of western interference in the Middle East and its lamentable results. It explains and brings to life a massive area of fighting, which in most other accounts is restricted to the disaster at Gallipoli and the British invasions of Iraq and Palestine.