A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin (1990, Paperback)

I was having a conversation about the break up of the Ottoman Empire and the fact that places such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia were carved out of it by Europeans and often had little historic validity. A former Secretary of Defense, who was a party to the conversation, recommended this book as an excellant source on the subject. A Peace to End All Peace begins with the last days of Old Europe and the rise of the Young Turks. So far, I've read about 15% of the book. It is a complex subject and for me that often requires re-reading the text for clarity. It is a most informative book on the intrigues and foibles of all the players including Lord Kitchener, Lloyd George, David Ben-Gurion, Chaim Weizmann (the chemist who helped the British build an explosives industry for the war effort) and Winston Churchill.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the Middle East, who are the players, what is their legitimacy, what historic role compelled the British to join the U.S. in invading Iraq. In addition, it helped to give context to films I have seen such as Gallipoli and Laurence of Arabia.