The book gives a good overall history of the Balkan Wars and WW1 and the transition thereafter to Kemal's government of the modern Turkish borders we know. How Sean describes movements and campaigns in these wars is not too heavy or long-winded, and he does a good job of keeping things engaging while moving time forward.

I do wish we heard a little more about reforms made by Kemal's government. It's a little glossed over the transition from a sultanate to a parliamentary republic, it kind of just happens, and I think hearing about how the government did things more broadly post treaty of Lausanne would've been interesting, even if it was just a brief summary. It would give the reader a little more context and could give an idea of where the Turkish government was heading post 1923.

If you're looking for a book to give some detailed context to events in the Middle East in general in our modern world, especially Israel-Palestine, this is not the book. The book tends to focus more on the geopolitical goings-on during the time period from a Turkish and European great-power perspective as it relates to the Ottoman Empire and its survival in WW1 and post-WW1. The Balfour declaration, Sykes-Picot, and McMahon correspondence are mentioned but are basically just footnotes with little context given to the problems they caused, besides a slight summary in the epilogue (for Sykes). I don't think this is necessarily a huge problem since the book is Ottoman/Turkey-based but just a heads up.