The Fall of the Ottomans
The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
*FULLY UPDATED WITH A NEW FOREWORD*
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE BRITISH ARMY MILITARY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016
'Truly essential' Simon Sebag Montefiore
The final destruction of the Ottoman Empire - one of the great epics of the First World War, from bestselling historian Eugene Rogan
For some four centuries the Ottoman Empire had been one of the most powerful states in Europe as well as ruler of the Middle East. By 1914 it had been drastically weakened and circled by numerous predators waiting to finish it off. Following the Ottoman decision to join the First World War on the side of the Central Powers the British, French and Russians hatched a plan to finish the Ottomans off: an ambitious and unprecedented invasion of Gallipoli...
Eugene Rogan's remarkable book recreates one of the most important but poorly understood fronts of the First World War. Despite fighting back with great skill and ferocity against the Allied onslaught and humiliating the British both at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia (Iraq), the Ottomans were ultimately defeated, clearing the way for the making, for better or worse, of a new Middle East which has endured to the present.
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Rogan (The Arabs: A History), a scholar of modern Middle Eastern history at Oxford, conducted extensive research in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic primary sources to remedy the lack of English-language WWI history from the Ottoman perspective. The result is a sweeping and nuanced work that shows how, in the years preceding the war, "the Ottoman Empire had endured a revolution, three major wars against foreign powers, and a number of internal disorders." Ottoman forces were thus at a marked disadvantage when war broke out, which was compounded by hubris and poor planning: "The rush to take on two Great Powers with inadequate preparation condemned both campaigns to catastrophic failure." Istanbul proved resilient, though, and it was only the Arab Revolt that precipitated the end of the Empire. Of the most contentious issue in latter-day Turkish history, Rogan says Ottoman documents "make a mockery of any attempt to deny the Young Turk government's role in ordering and organizing the annihilation of the Ottoman Armenian community." Though sections of the book are heavy on military strategy and tactics, Rogan's multifaceted analysis touches on everything from the use of Islamist discourse in political movements to the treatment of minorities in the modern Middle East. Photos.
