The book of the authoritative English historian-orientalist William Miller is an exhaustive account of the history of the last century and a half of the Ottoman Empire, the reasons for its fall, as well as the liberation movements that swept the European possessions of the Brilliant Port. The author describes in detail the uprisings of the Serbs of 1804-1817, the Greek War of Independence, the Crimean campaign and the unification of the Danube principalities. The historian pays special attention to covering the Balkan crisis of 1875-1878, which, along with the coming to power of the Young Turks and the loss of most of the territories, led to the division of the Ottoman Empire and the proclamation of a number of independent states in Southeast Europe and the Middle East.