Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes

One of the things I like about books is if there’s something I’m interested in learning more about, there’s always a book to read. A while back (this was months ago) I realized I didn’t know much about the history of Istanbul. This is the book I found.

The scope of this book is pretty epic, spanning hundreds of years. It starts in pre-history talking about the geological region around Istanbul: the Marmara Sea, the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn, the Black Sea, and the Aegean not too far from there. It goes from the earliest days of Byzantion to Byzantium to Constantinople to Konstaniye to Istanbul. I was struck by how much the geography of this place has shaped the humans and their choices over the centuries.

A compelling writer, Hughes kept the book rolling along, while providing just enough detail to keep it interesting. This book paired nicely with that book on Venice I read last month, providing a perspective that sort of laid aslant from that of Venice.

What did I take away from this book? Well, over and over and over, there are those who spend long, slow years building things up and creating beauty and community and then there are those who, in an instant, burn it all down.

I liked this. A solid work of history.