The Ottoman empire and early modern Europe /

It is time that Ottoman history is studied as part of European history, for the Ottomans played a major role in Europe's development. In fact, some historians have argued persuasively that the very idea of Europe emerged from the confrontation with Islam and the Ottomans. This is the second text on the Ottoman Empire in Cambridge's "New Approaches to European History" series. The first was Donald Quataert's The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (2000). Goffman (Ball State Univ.) covers the earlier period, beginning with the founding of the Ottoman state. He has written an excellent monograph showing that the early modern Ottoman Empire was an integral part of Europe, that it continued to be so unti1 its demise, and that the two ought to be studied together in order to obtain a complete picture. Mining largely Ottoman sources, Goffman has looked at Europe from an Ottoman perspective and examined Western stereotypes and Eurocentric mythologizing about the Ottomans. This stimulating book should be required reading in all courses on early modern Europe. All levels and collections. F. Ahmad emeritus, University of Massachusetts at Boston