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The Eastern Mediterranean and the ‘Long’ First World War

1910-1923

The Eastern Mediterranean and the ‘Long’ First World War cover

The Eastern Mediterranean and the ‘Long’ First World War

1910-1923

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Pre-order. Available Oct 29 2026
$103.50 RRP $115.00 Website price saving $11.50 (10%)

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Description

This book provides an exploration of the ways in which the Eastern Mediterranean experienced social upheaval, revolution, and war in and around the time of the First World War.

The Eastern Mediterranean and the 'Long' First World War challenges both the typical periodization and the prevailing conception of a moribund Islamic empire swiftly wiped from the map by emergent nationalisms. It highlights the divergent and differing concerns of imperial, regional, and local actors as they took up the banner of the Ottoman Empire. The book also discusses the historiographical implications of the conceptualization of the 'long' First World War in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Bringing together an international cast of contributors, the volume bridges the gap between southern European and Middle Eastern narratives of the First World War by both detailing the distinct conflicts that emerged in the Balkans, western Asia, and North Africa by pointing towards the similar political ideas, capabilities, and motivations that fueled this extended conflagration. Furthermore, it introduces cutting-edge research and studies to generate a more comprehensive understanding of this conflict, shedding new light on regions often omitted from narratives of the First World War, such as Albania, Cyprus, Macedonia, Cilicia, Pontus, and Libya among others.

The book offers a much-needed examination of the epochal and, in most cases, devastating changes that a decade of war wrought on the Eastern Mediterranean and the former Ottoman lands, an area that, through violence, starvation, and genocide, lost up to a fifth of its population in these few short years.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I – Greece, Anatolia, and Cyprus: Navigating Identity, Neutrality, and Imperialism
1. Dangerous Liaisons: Greece's grand strategy in the First World War from neutrality to bandwagoning Dionysios Tsirigotis (University of Piraeus, Greece)
2. Is Your Neighbor an Enemy or a Friend? The Pontus' Long War (1912-23) Charalampos Minasidis (University College Dublin, Ireland)
3. Imperialism in Lausanne: Britain, Cyprus, and the Eastern Question Ilia Xypolia (University of Aberdeen, UK)
Part II – The Western Balkans and Adriatic: Albanian Uncertainty, Greek and Serbian Assertions, and Italian Aspirations
4. Albania as a Nexus of the Long First World War of the Eastern Mediterranean 1910-1925 James N. Tallon (Lewis University, USA)
5. The Italian Occupation of Epirus: A continuity of conflict in the Greek-Albanian borderlands, 1916-1920 Christopher Kinley (Independent Scholar, USA)
6. Enduring the Uncertainty of Occupations: The Greater War, its consequences, and the local communities in Taslica/Pljevlja (Sanžak) Jovo Miladinovic (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany)
Part III –Violence and War in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean
7. The Italo-Ottoman War and the Long War in the Mediterranean Jonathan Claymore McCollum (Brigham Young University, USA)
8. Prisoners and Forced Migration Kent Schull (Binghampton University, SUNY, USA)
9. Edirne in the Balkan Wars Pinar Odabsi Tasçi (University of Akron, USA)
10. Cilicia, Between Violence and Regional Growth, From Empire to Nation-State, 1908-1922 Meltem Toksoz (Wesleyan University, USA) and Ohannes Kiliçdagi (Independent Scholar, Turkey)
Part IV – Precursors, Crisis, and the Aftermath of the Long War
11. British Policy in the Mediterranean, 1905-1914 Justin Quinn Olmstead (Sandia National Laboratory, USA)
12. The Crisis of Social Reproduction in Ottoman Society during World War I Kate Dannies (Miami University-Ohio, USA)
13. The Great War's Long Shadow over the Health of Greater Syria Tylor Brand (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
14. Allied Occupation of Istanbul Ceren Abi (Kadir Has University, Turkey)
Conclusion
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Oct 29 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 320
ISBN 9781350587229
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

James N. Tallon

James N. Tallon is Associate Professor of History…

Anthology Editor

Jonathan Claymore McCollum

Jonathan Claymore McCollum is Visiting Assistant P…

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