The book by the authoritative English orientalist historian William Miller is a comprehensive 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 Sublime Porte. The author describes in detail the Serbian uprisings of 1804–1817, the Greek War of Independence, the Crimean Campaign and the unification of the Danube principalities. The historian pays special attention to the coverage of the Balkan crisis of 1875–1878, which, along with the rise 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 South-Eastern Europe and the Middle East.