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Thomas F. Madden’s ‘Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World� is an incredibly ambitious book that attempts to encapsulate some 3000 years of history into a single volume. It makes for a fascinating read but sometimes leaves the reader longing for a more thorough exploration of the subject matter.

The history of Istanbul is undeniably fascinating- indeed, the history of the city is a history of human civilization in a nutshell. However, this breadth also presents a problem for the text. It is impossible to encapsulate so much history in such a slim volume, and too much gets left out or glossed over- entire wars are summarized in a sentence, and some contemporary atrocities are virtually left out altogether.

In many cases, not enough historical context is provided to properly understand the scenarios being presented. The book focuses heavily on the story of the city, but it’s hard to isolate the capital from the empire and its interactions with the wider world. For instance, the Great Northern War (1700-1721) is only briefly mentioned, which disappointed me. This ties back into the impossibility of the book's modus operandi—the episode cannot be properly discussed without a lot of context about Peter the Great and Karl XII, but if Madden delved completely into all the events of the Byzantine, Roman, and Ottoman empires, he would never be able to finish it.

Madden acknowledges the impossibility of this task in his introduction, and you can’t really blame him for his monumental effort, but at times the book's Sisyphean nature prevented me from really engaging with the text. I do appreciate the structure and pacing of the book; it tirelessly plods through the entire scope of modern human history (though it includes little speculation on the region's prehistoric inhabitants), and for the most part the different eras are given impartial treatment.

To summarize, the book is an excellent overview and introduction to the history of Istanbul, but I felt that I had to read an additional 25 focused and detailed historical volumes to really grasp the story of the city. It is definitely intended for readers unfamiliar with the general history of the region, more historically savvy readers may prefer to explore the various events and eras covered by this book in isolation.

In any case, there is great value in providing an overview of Istanbul’s intensely storied and intricate past. Hats off to Madden.