Shattering Empires is an expansion of Michael Reynolds' unpublished 2003 doctoral dissertation drafted at Princeton University under the supervision of Professor Şükrü Hanioğlu. The book is about the story of the rivalry and fall of the Ottoman and Russian empires in 1908-1918. It argues that "geopolitical Competition and the emergence of a new global interstate order provide the key to understanding the course of history in the Ottoman-Russian borderlands in the twentieth century" (p. i). The monograph is thematically rather than chronologically arranged and the descriptive-analitical account is divided into eight chapters.

Tenacious and systematic attempts are being made by a number of Armenian 'scholars' to sway, especially Jewish public opinion, that there is a link between the experiences of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, which they label as 'the first genocide of the twentieth century', and those of the European Jewry during World War II. By their persistent attempts, skilful manipulation of the feelings of some Jewish and other sympathisers, and masterful use of distorted, tendencious, and even forged 'documents', they have succeeded in winning over some of those who are the real victims of the Holocaust, and a number of younger generation Jewish writers, such as Yehuda Bauer, Leo Kuper, and a few others. Is there such a parallel? Let us examine the arguments for and against before we answer this question.