The Crimean War: A History

Orlando Figes argues that the Crimean War was primarily a religious crusade triggered by a dispute over the custody of the Holy Sepulchre. He shifts the narrative away from a localized border skirmish, presenting it as a proto-world war involving the British, French, Ottoman, and Russian empires. The book tracks the failure of mid-nineteenth-century diplomacy and the catastrophic logistical errors during the Siege of Sevastopol. Figes utilizes Russian archive materials to document the brutal reality of the trenches and the massive displacement of civilian populations across the Black Sea region.

Students of geopolitics and military history read this volume to understand the origins of the Eastern Question and the modernization of naval warfare. The text provides a historical framework for interpreting ongoing territorial tensions in Ukraine and the Balkans. Readers finish the book with a technical understanding of the transition from sailing ships to steam power and a clear grasp of how nineteenth-century Christian rivalries shaped the contemporary map of Europe and the Middle East.