Someone might be interested in:
A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich
This is his abridged version of his three volume work. It's interesting and a useful foundation for anyone who wants to learn about Byzantine history but I find it flawed in key respects.
It's very much a history of Constantinople, especially the Emperors and the Imperial court. Page after page is devoted to court politics and hairsplitting religious disputes but there is never a mention of the basic economy of the empire or military organization or the happenings of anywhere outside the capital, unless there was a battle there or someone went into exile. Plagues,invasions, technological innovations, earthquakes and such are dismissed with a brief mention or ignored entirely.
Still this is a good book to start with, if only because there are so few books on the subject in English. The style is a bit academic and very difficult for anyone not fluent in English. Turkish friends who have excellent spoken English had great difficulty with this book.
Another one I've read is:
The Turks in World History by Carter Vaughn Findley
This is a history of all the Turkic people, from the Xiongnu on the Chinese borderlands about 2500 years ago, through the first Türk empire about 1500 years ago in the same area through the Turkic expansion through Central Asia to Anatolia.
The history of Turkey is a significant part of this book but it covers the history of the other Turkic nations, mostly independent now after the fall of the Soviet Union. There is some useful political background for many countries covering the past 100 - 200 years.
There is not a pure history; sociology is freely sprinkled through its pages, sometimes providing insights, sometimes adding to the confusion of events.
Another book that is valuable because it covers such a neglected topic. Much of its coverage is superficial, as it must be in a book covering such an enormous period of time and space.
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