| Ambassador Morgenthau's Story Contributor(s): Morgenthau III, Henry (Author), Balakian, Peter (Editor), Lifton, Robert Jay (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0814329799 ISBN-13: 9780814329795 Publisher: Wayne State University Press OUR PRICE: $32.66 Product Type: Paperback Published: August 2003 Annotation: This edition brings back into print the classic memoir by the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire who not only documented but also tried to stop the genocide of the Armenian people. Originally published in 1918, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story is one of the most insightful and compelling accounts of what became a recurring horror during the twentieth century: ethnic cleansing and genocide. While he served as the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire under Woodrow Wilson from 1913 to 1916, Henry Morgenthau witnessed the rise of a new nationalism in Turkey, one that declared "Turkey for the Turks." He grew alarmed as he received reports from missionaries and consuls in the interior of Turkey that described the deportation and massacre of the Armenians. The ambassador beseeched the U.S. government to intervene, but it refrained, leaving Morgenthau without official leverage. His recourse was to appeal personally to the consciences of Ottoman rulers and their German allies; when that failed, he drew international media attention to the genocide and spearheaded private relief efforts. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Middle East - Turkey & Ottoman Empire - History | Modern - 20th Century - History | Military - World War I |
| Dewey: 940.324 |
| LCCN: 2003006395 |
| Physical Information: 1.01" H x 5.88" W x 8.88" (1.43 lbs) 424 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1900-1919 - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - Turkey |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Originally published in 1918, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story is one of the most insightful and compelling accounts of what became a recurring horror during the twentieth century: ethnic cleansing and genocide. While he served as the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire under Woodrow Wilson from 1913 to 1916, Henry Morgenthau witnessed the rise of a new nationalism in Turkey, one that declared "Turkey for the Turks." He grew alarmed as he received reports from missionaries and consuls in the interior of Turkey that described deportation and massacre of the Armenians. The ambassador beseeched the U.S. government to intervene, but it refrained, leaving Morgenthau without official leverage. His recourse was to appeal personally to the consciences of Ottoman rulers and their German allies; when that failed, he drew international media attention to the genocide and spearheaded private relief efforts. "The power of Morgenthau's book to move and instruct us eighty years after its publication," writes Roger Smith in his introduction, "is intimately connected with its truthfulness about the atrocities and the men behind them, but also about the capacities of humans to commit enormous evil with a light heart." The memoir also documents the beginnings of U.S. interest in international human rights as well as patterns and symptoms of genocidal tendencies, foreshadowing most notably the Nazi Holocaust. |