Just in time for summer, the Camden Conference Program Committee has issued an expanded list of recommended reading for the 2013 Camden Conference, The Middle East: What Next?

The Committee’s first choice is David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace. 20th Anniversary Edition: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and Creation of the Modern Middle East.

His original book was published in 1989, and now is in a 463-page paper edition with an Afterword by Fromkin. Both will provide a better understanding of how the Ottoman Empire was carved up after WW1 and how it has fared since then. Interestingly, young Winston Churchill was in charge of that huge break-up project.

For more summer reading ideas, please see the 2013 Conference Booklist here.