One day in England in 1936, a sixteen-year-old schoolboy riding steeplechase gets a message that his father, King Fouad I of Egypt has died. Instantly, the young prince, thereafter known as King Farouk, is swept upon the tumultuous world stage of pre-WWII. This biography tells the story of a young ruler who assumes the throne of a country struggling to rise on its own youthful legs of independence. Farouk must take up the mantle of his father and move his country into the twentieth century socially, economically, and politically. To add to this ominous task, he must also struggle with the...

By 1924, Turkish Nationalists had already made away with every old practice of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey, in a few years, broke apart with the past and imposed European ideals on her people. New Turkey accomplished radical improvements without apparent risk of revolution. Such great achievement was the power of Ataturk and his battalions as his opponents were displaying to the world Oriental passivity. But what happened before 1924? The Sultans, their Harem. Multiple races. Minorities. Christian Missionaries. Russia's desire to recover Constantinople. Spies' activities. The Balkans?...