The Young Turks: The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908-1914 (Columbia/Hurst)

First published in 1973, The Young Turks has become the definitive study of a group also known as the Committee of Union and Progress. Counting Turkish army officers among its members, the Young Turks sought to reform the Ottoman Empire by provoking a constitutional revolution against Sultan Ahmed Hamid II.

Feroz Ahmad details the rise of the Young Turks, their challenge to the sultan, and the ensuing counterrevolution of 1909. He also includes a discussion of the Group of Saviour officers, who set out to destroy the Young Turks. The Ottoman armies routed the Unionists during the First Balkan War and inflicted great losses on them in Macedonia. Yet in 1913, the Young Turks regained power in a coup led by the charismatic Enver Bey. They then abandoned the idea of a union and pursued more moderate policies. Ahmad concludes with an examination of territorial losses and the impact of six years of war on the Ottoman state.