Reviews for Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East

The average rating for Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-29 00:00:00 Jason Spiegel If you are looking for a detailed history of WWI in the Middle East with details on the military units involved in its various campaigns, then this may be a good book to read. However, it is ponderous and dry ---- nothing like Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August". Ford gives us details, but he provides little or no insight into the personalities or the backgrounds of this history's drivers ---- men such as Field Marshal Allenby, Gen. Sir Ian Hamilton, Russian Gen. Yudenich, Churchill, Kemal Ataturk, Gen. Limon von Sanders, and other notables. As a result, the players are just names, nothing more, and the reader can gain little insight from this book in understanding the underlying reasons for the decisions they made and the actions they took. Interestingly, Ford scarcely mentions any impacts of the Arab Revolt or Lawrence of Arabia's involvement in the Palestine campaign ---- so evidently, by such omission, Ford seems to feel that this, in the context of the overall history, these are secondary in importance. Another flaw in this book is the maps. The book does have them, but about half the place names, Ford mentions are not even shown ---- so it is difficult for the reader to appreciate such matters as the topography or distances that the various units had to deal with during the fighting. If you are going to do a detailed military history, then it makes sense to have accompanying maps that can illustrate what exactly the history is describing. All in all, the book was accurate, well documented, would withstand academic scrutiny. For someone researching the Middle Eastern theater of WWI, it is a good resource. On the other hand, for someone desiring a readable, intriguing description of its events, this is probably not the book you're looking for.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-21 00:00:00 Jeff Astin A dense, plodding operational history of the Middle Eastern theater, mostly written in an unbearably dull prose. Ford gives the reader a good overview of the war's origins, the decline of the Ottomans, and the many Turkish military disasters under Enver Pasha's leadership. The subsequent chapters each cover a different part of the Middle Eastern theaters. Curiously, there are no citations, and some parts of the narrative are more enjoyable than others. The different sections of the narrative don't feel very cohesive, and there are lots of run-on sentences. And there is no bibliography, although there are endnotes. Some more maps would have helped, and none of the maps show any troop movements. Also, Ford claims that the Hashemites were installed to prevent French invasions of Palestine and that Mosul was given to Iraq by the League of Nations (rather than a deal between the British and French) Interesting enough but very dry.