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. Published with a new afterword from the author — the classic, bestselling account of how the modern Middle East was created.
For at least a century before the 1914 war, Europeans had regarded it as axiomatic that someday the Middle East would be occupied by one or more of the Great Powers. Their great fear was that disputes about their respective shares might lead the European powers to fight ruinous wars against one another.
The Lasting Legacy of a Failed Peace: A Review of David Fromkin’s ‘A Peace to End All Peace’
Some books don’t just recount history; they fundamentally reshape how we understand a region and its enduring challenges. David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East is unequivocally one such book. First published in 1989, it remains a seminal, often unsettling, account of how the decisions made by victorious Allied powers during and immediately after World War I laid the groundwork for much of the instability and conflict that defines the Middle East today.
Fromkin’s central thesis is powerfully simple and devastatingly complex in its execution: the modern political map and the internal tensions of the Middle East are a direct consequence of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent, often cynical and ill-informed, efforts by Britain and France to redraw its borders and impose their will upon its former territories. The “peace” that emerged from the ashes of WWI was, ironically, anything but.
The book plunges the reader into the chaotic world of wartime diplomacy and post-war settlements. Fromkin meticulously details the conflicting promises made by Britain – to Arab leaders seeking independence via the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, to the French regarding spheres of influence in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and to the Zionist movement in the Balfour Declaration. He reveals a world where imperial ambitions, strategic concerns (particularly control over oil and access to India), internal bureaucratic rivalries, and profound ignorance of the region’s complex social, sectarian, and ethnic tapestry drove policy.
Fromkin vividly portrays the key players: the often-duplicitous British Foreign Office under figures like Lord Curzon, the determinedly self-interested French leadership, and the various Ottoman officials, Arab nationalists, and regional figures navigating a rapidly changing landscape. He follows the arc from the Ottoman Empire joining the Central Powers, its eventual defeat, and the scramble by Britain and France to divide the spoils through the mandate system.
A core strength of A Peace to End All Peace lies in Fromkin’s narrative skill. Despite the intricate details of diplomatic maneuvering and military campaigns, the book reads with clarity and compelling force. He doesn’t just present facts; he builds a case, showing how key decisions were made, often based on flawed intelligence, wishful thinking, or outright disregard for the local populations’ desires. The drawing of arbitrary borders, the imposition of foreign rule, and the manipulation of local factions are shown not as inevitable historical forces, but as the direct results of specific choices made by specific individuals in London and Paris.
While focusing heavily on the Western powers, Fromkin does not entirely neglect the regional context. He touches upon the Arab Revolt, the rise of Turkish nationalism under Atatürk, and the diverse populations caught within the newly created states like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Palestine. However, the book’s primary focus remains firmly on the imperial architects of this new order and the disastrous consequences of their handiwork.
The power of the book lies in its ability to connect historical events to ongoing present-day issues. The artificiality of borders, the legacy of foreign intervention, the unresolved national aspirations, and the simmering sectarian tensions in the Middle East can all be traced, with uncomfortable directness, back to the period Fromkin describes. The irony embedded in the title – a peace treaty (the Treaty of Versailles and subsequent agreements) that failed to bring lasting stability and instead ushered in decades of conflict – is the book’s enduring message.
While some later scholarship has nuance Fromkin’s emphasis, perhaps giving more weight to local agency or other factors, A Peace to End All Peace remains indispensable. It is a masterful work of historical synthesis that makes a compelling, arguably irrefutable, argument about the origins of the modern Middle East’s geopolitical landscape.
For anyone seeking to understand why the Middle East has been a region of seemingly perpetual crisis for the past century, David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace is not just recommended reading; it is essential. It serves as a stark reminder of the profound and lasting impact of imperial ambition and the dangerous consequences of attempting to impose a “peace” without genuine understanding or consent. It is a history lesson that continues to resonate, loudly and tragically, in headlines today.