The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power - Tapa blanda

In this excellent, well-researched, and fascinating book, Sean McMeekin has given us a welcome and stimulating perspective on a highly important but neglected aspect of the First World War... A tale of high adventure, ambition and political chicanery with a cast of colourful, brave and sometimes ruthless characters.--Lawrence James "Literary Review "

A riveting account.--Brendan Simms "The Independent "

An exciting new book by a talented young historian, Sean McMeekin, who is one of the few to have penetrated the notoriously difficult Ottoman archives, despite the crucial importance of Turkey in the first world war.--Niall Ferguson "The Observer "

McMeekin has written a powerful, overdue book that for many will open up a whole new side to the first world war, while forcing us to be less reticent in confronting indelicate matters, such as the origins of Nazi-Islamist links.--George Walden"The Guardian" (07/18/2010)

Sean McMeekin shows how the ambitious plan to build a railroad from Central Europe to Mesopotamia was the key to some of the most crucial episodes in the First World War, including the Armenian genocide and the Arab Revolt.--Adam Kirsch"Barnes and Noble Review" (09/20/2010)

Sean McMeekin has written a classic of First World War history... superb and original.--Norman Stone, author of World War One: A Short History

A seminal work that demonstrates for the first time that Imperial Germany's jihad strategy in World War I-- exploiting pan-Islamism in the Middle East to stoke the fire of native Muslim revolts against the British and against Russia-- played a crucial role in German plans to win the war. Now students of the 'Great War' will no longer be able to dismiss the German 'holy war' strategy as merely peripheral. There is much to be learned in this superb work about the recent past and today in the Middle East.--Donald M. McKale, author of War By Revolution: Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

A terrific book...McMeekin's learned story of death-defying secret agents, intrepid archeologists, and double-dealing sheikhs makes for wonderful entertainment.--The Sunday Times

In addition to bringing to life a fascinating episode in early 20th-century history, The Berlin-Baghdad Express contains several timely lessons and cautionary tales. Purchased loyalty is worthless. Western countries may possess superior military force, but they are outwitted time and again by diplomacy as practiced by Muslim leaders. Lastly, there is no such thing as global Islamic solidarity--jihad is an expedient, not a belief system.-- (08/23/2010)

Germany saw the ambitious Berlin-to-Baghdad railway as a powerful tool to win World War I. But the doomed project wasn't completed until 1940. The railway debacle provides a colorful backdrop for historian McMeekin's look at the Great War from the German-Turk perspective; as a cast of ruthless characters illustrate Germany's attempt to topple what was then the largest Middle East power: the British Empire.-- (09/11/2010)