Dangerous gifts : imperialism, security, and civil wars in the Levant, 1798–1864

• In the middle of a transitional era, the 19th-century Eastern Mediterranean became the center of a new “security culture” emerging among the Great Powers during the rise and fall of Napoleon. By integrating this security studies perspective within a well-known history, Özavcı (Utrecht Univ., the Netherlands) offers a provocative challenge to how scholars will read events in larger Europe after the Congress of Vienna. Drawing from research in many underused archives, Özavcı provides a neatly organized, methodologically innovative account of the European Powers' emerging concerns as the Ottoman Empire transformed during its critical Tanzimat era. The book’s analysis of economic and military interactions in Egypt, Greece, and larger Syria (Mount Lebanon) during this crucial transitional period will set new standards in how future scholars read diplomatic relations in the larger European context. Beyond changing how scholars may study European diplomatic relations moving forward, Dangerous Gifts offers insights into the evolution of the modern Ottoman state. As such, this book will quickly become essential reading for graduate students in Middle Eastern studies and scholars of the Ottoman Empire more generally who wish to understand the fluid, dynamic international political crises of the so-called Eastern Question.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Imperialism

Middle East

Modernity

Ottoman Empire

Islam

Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures

Mellanösterns språk och kulturer

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

rec (subject category)