Germany and the Ottoman Railways

“Christensen’s exploration of the Ottoman railway network construction . . . is an interesting and novel piece of work.”—Benjamin Biebl, Asian Affairs

Winner of the 2020 Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award, sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians

“Peter Christensen takes the reader on a fascinating journey across geographical and disciplinary boundaries in this nuanced history of the Ottoman Empire’s German-built railway network. His thoughtful exploration of cartography, engineering, and architecture confronts and challenges broader issues of geopolitics, multiculturalism, and orientalism.”—Dietrich Neumann, Brown University

“Peter Christensen’s story of the German construction of railroads in the final decades of the Ottoman Empire provides a perceptive exploration of the relationship between the empire, its hinterlands, and Europe that has continued relevance today.”—Kathleen James-Chakraborty, University College Dublin

“Moving fluidly between different territories and disciplines like a train that travels on the Ottoman railways whose history he writes, Peter Christensen connects visual, architectural, military, cartographic, and archaeological histories to prove the sociopolitical importance of this crucial infrastructure project.”—Esra Akcan, author of Architecture in Translation