chadkoh's review
4.0
I get bored reading meticulous accounts about order of battle, supply line accounting, and weather conditions. But I do understand the important of knowing these things. The Fall of the Ottomans might not be the easiest read, but it is certainly an important work. Rogan has done a service to WWI scholarship, and it was interesting to see the war from the Ottomans point of view. So many gaps to fill in between my spare knowledge of Gallipoli and my dozen viewings of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. ;-)
ammarakh's review against another edition
4.0
The Fall of The Ottomans: The Great War in The Middle East by Eugene Rogan is an account of the significance of the Middle Eastern front in WWI and its enduring legacy in the present day. The book starts with the turbulent years leading to the Great War which witnessed three Balkan Wars, internal political changes and the rise of the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire. Then the writer focuses on the reasons that led the Young Turks, by then the de facto rulers, to seek an alliance with Germany. The early humiliating defeats of the Ottomans emboldened the Allied powers which resulted in the folly that was the Gallipoli battle. After suffering mortifying losses the Allied forces were eventually forced to evacuate Gallipoli and soon afterwards were dealt another blow by the Ottomans in Mesopotamia. Eugene Rogan carefully paints a holistic picture of the three battle fronts that the Ottomans faced, Gallipoli, Caucasus and Mesopotamia, and their significance in the Great War in general. The Arab revolt that was a contributing factor in the subsequent Ottoman losses in Syria and Palestine is also discussed in great detail. The book is well researched and unbiased in its depiction of the Ottomans and the Entente Powers alike. I very much enjoyed The Arabs: A History by Eugene Rogan and would recommend both of these books to anyone looking for an impartial history of the modern Middle East that makes it easier to comprehend the many conflicts that plague this region today.
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