In Becoming Ottomans, Julia Phillips Cohen examines the transformation of the Ottoman Jewish community from an inactive, invisible minority within the Empire to a model community of loyal imperial citizens (or millet) during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Using primary sources such as Ottoman Jewish newspapers, consular documents, and photographs, Cohen depicts this transformation as a complex, ongoing process of negotiation carried out by Ottoman Jews, who often had to sacrifice tradition in order to better assimilate. In addition to introductory and concluding chapters, the book contains four chronological chapters. The first focuses on the Tanzimat reforms that emancipated the empire's non-Muslim residents and the Jewish community's early attempts to gain political recognition by embracing the Turkish language and culture. These efforts continue into chapter two, as Ottoman Jews emphasize their strong historical bond with the Turks. In the third chapter, set during the Empire's 1897 War with Christian Greeks, Jewish leaders emphasized their unrivaled loyalty to the sultan and the Muslim majority to distance themselves from religious minority groups who were seen as unpatriotic and experienced persecution as a result. The fourth chapter discusses the rise of rival political factions within the Jewish community in the twentieth century. These factions used patriotism as a way to compete for the sultan's favor.