The Invention of the Eastern Question: Sir Robert Liston and Ottoman Diplomacy in the Age of Revolutions

The Invention of the Eastern Question recounts the gripping and dramatic history of how the Russian Empire’s invasion of Ottoman Crimea reshaped global politics at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Through the lives of Scottish diplomat Sir Robert Liston and his wife Henrietta (née Marchand) Liston, the book follows the emergence of the Eastern Question— the most dangerous, enduring and complex international relations issue of the century that would claim millions of lives until the 1920s. Drawing on the Listons’ official and private letters, personal diaries and a trove of Austrian, British, Dutch, French, Ottoman, and Russian archives, Ozan Ozavci reveals the importance of the art of negotiation in the age of revolutions, showing how the choices of a few people shaped empires, stirred tensions, and left a legacy that would haunt global imperial relations long after the Listons left the world stage. Providing a new analysis of Euro-Ottoman relations at a crucial historical juncture, the book will be of great interest to scholars of history and International Relations.