Mavi Boncuk |The Ottoman Army 1914 – 1918
Disease and Death on the Battlefield
By Hikmet Ozdemir[1]
Salt Lake City | University of Utah Press
Utah Series in Middle East Studies
Pages: 288
Paperback | 9780874809237
eBook | 9781607819646
What kind of relationship exists between wars and epidemics? It is widely held that epidemics affected the outcomes of many wars and, until World War II, more victims of war died of disease than of battle wounds. Many disease vectors are present in times of conflict, including mass movements of people across borders and increased contact between persons of different geographic regions, yet disease is rarely treated in depth in histories of war.
Hikmet Özdemir’s The Ottoman Army, 1914–1918 provides extensive documentation of disease and death across the Ottoman Empire during World War I, when epidemic diseases annihilated armies and caused civilians to perish en masse. Drawing on hospital records and information on regional disease prevalence, Özdemir examines the effects that disease and epidemic had on the outcome of the war.
The information on disease mortality explains much that has never been properly understood about wartime events and government actions, events that only begin to make sense when the disease factor is considered. Rich in detail, this is an extremely valuable book that illuminates a facet of the war that has not been adequately considered until now.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables
List of Abbreviations
Pronunciation Guide
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Between Two Fires
3. Under the Crescent
4. Epidemic Disaster
5. Ordeal with Diseases
6. Unburied Corpses
7. Unexpected Results
8. Unarmed Warriors
9. Epilogue
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Notes
Bibliography
Index
[1] Hikmet Özdemir is research professor at the Turkish History Council in Ankara.
Political scientist (b. 1951, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey). He is a graduate of the Turkey Middle East Institute of Public Administration. He received a doctoral degree from Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences. He worked at Turkish Scientific and Technical Studies Foundation for 10 years. He conducted a postdoctoral study in London at the Schools of Asia and Africa and became a professor. He served as the consultant of vice-Prime Minister in the coalition of Right Path Party-Social-Democrat Popular Party, and as the first-counselor of the President, Turgut Özal. He worked as a lecturer in Kırıkkale University, Department of History.
WORKS:
Kalkınmada Bir Strateji Arayışı-Yön Hareketi (A Search for a Strategy of Development- the Movement of Direction, 1986), Sol Kemalizm (The Leftist Kemalism, 1993), Rejim ve Asker (The Regime and the Army, 1993), Ordunun Olağandışı Rolü (The Extraordinary Role of the Army, 1994), Tarih ve Politika (History and Politics, 1995), Üçüncü Türkiye (Third Turkey, 1995), Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Turkish Republic, 1995).
REFERENCE: İhsan Işık / Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) – Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Fikir ve Kültür Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 3, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Serdar Ant “Bir Jön Türk’ün Ardından...” (Virgül, sayı: 33, Eylül 2000), Cemil Çiftçi / Maraşlı Şairler Yazarlar Alimler (2000), Fethi Naci / Alıntılardan Alıntılar ya da YÖN Yılları (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 21.3.2002), İhsan Işık / Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006).
REVIEW
Hikmet Özdemir
The Ottoman Army, 1914–1918: Disease and Death on the Battlefield
Translated by Saban Kardaş. (Utah Series in Turkish and Islamic Studies.)
Salt Lake City
University of Utah Press
2008
. Pp. xiii, 274. $25.00.The American Historical Review, Volume 114, Issue 2, April 2009, Pages 516–517, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.114.2.516
Published:
01 April 2009