Bibliograph

The Ottoman road to war in 1914, the Ottoman Empire and the First World War, Mustafa Aksakal

Type

Label

The Ottoman road to war in 1914, the Ottoman Empire and the First World War, Mustafa Aksakal

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

illustrationsmaps

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The Ottoman road to war in 1914

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Mustafa Aksakal

Review

"Why did the Ottoman Empire enter the First World War in late October 1914, months after the war's devastations had become clear? Were its leaders "simple minded, " "below-average" individuals, as the doyen of Turkish diplomatic history has argued? Or, as others have claimed, did the Ottomans enter the war because War Minister Enver Pasha, dictating Ottoman decisions, was in thrall to the Germans and to his own expansionist dreams?

Series statement

Cambridge military histories

Sub title

the Ottoman Empire and the First World War

Summary

Based on previously untapped Ottoman and European sources, Mustafa Aksakal's study challenges this consensus. It demonstrates that responsibility went far beyond Enver, that the road to war was paved by the demands of a politically interested public, and that the Ottoman leadership sought the German alliance as the only way out of a web of international threats and domestic insecurities, opting for an escape whose catastrophic consequences for the empire and seismic impact on the Middle East are felt even today."--BOOK JACKET

Table Of Contents

Pursuing sovereignty in the age of imperialism -- The intellectual and emotional climate after the Balkan Wars -- 1914 : war with Greece? -- The Ottomans within the international order -- The great war as great opportunity : the Ottoman July crisis -- Tug of war : Penelope's game -- Salvation through war? -- Conclusion : the decision for war remembered

Classification