Those who have read Alan Mooreheads brilliant book on the battle of Gallipoli will find little extra in Haythornthwaite's book.A few coloured plates is not enough to buy this book.

Almost everything mentioned within this book have been noted somewhere else. Haythornthwaite did a good job of putting it altogether and made our life easier to read it in one piece.

Above else it shows that Mustafa Kemal, loved by some and hated by others, actually gain the most out of this disasterous ANZAC's campaign. He ascended to power only to liquidize the 'last'/'only' Khilafah that the Muslim had by 1924. You'll be amazed and wondered whether the whole thing was a 'setup' to break the Ottoman Devlet from the inside.

In the end the Ottoman lost the whole war by alligning to the wrong side (Central Powers) in that pitiful World War I.

One of the best things that Haythornthwaite's book has going for it is the concise, easy-to-understand manner in which it was written, which is especially helpful in descriptions of the military manoevers that were conducted throughout the Gallipoli campaign. Historians already familiar with the basics of the campaign and looking for more in-depth discussion would likely be better served by Laffin's Damn the Dardanelles or the Gallipoli volumes of C.E.W. Bean's vast, official history, The Story of ANZAC.

That said, Haythornthwaite provides an excellent, well-written overview of the Gallipoli campaign, discussing both what happened and why things went so wrong. The color plates are particularly helpful in discerning the strategy behind various troop movements, and the book's bibliography would likely prove very useful for those inclined to use this work as a starting point for further research. Overall, a valuable resource for anyone interested in investigating the fight for Gallipoli.

After yawning through the first few chapters of Mr. Pickles latest attempt, I gratefully fell asleep and never picked Malta up again. Apparently Mr. Pickles fell asleep during his research for the book as well, as the number of inaccuracies in his research are astounding- I advise him to start publishing under the pseudonym "General Doofus". Don't buy this book unless you want to indulge the pocketbooks of a talentless author who spends more time pretending to be a General in lieu getting his facts straight. He should be drafted into service and sent to the front lines of any conflict we can find- then maybe he can learn to author a decent book.

The Great Siege of Malta was one of the most epic battles of the Wars of Religion. To date, the most popular book on this topic has been Ernle Bradford's "The Great Siege". While a gripping and highly readable account, it fell far short on providing specific details of the conflict. Despite this, it was responsible for developing my strong interest in the battle, and remains a personal favorite.

When I first heard of impending publication of Mr.Pickles work - and by Osprey Publications no less, reknowned for their level of research - I went so far as to pre-order it, sight unseen. Unfortunately, the initial high hopes held for this book were quickly dashed.

There are no new insights offered, and the level of historic detail is wanting. Armchair military historians are offered little in the way of explanation of unit organization, tactics, logistics or command structures. Indeed, in some ways the book is a step backward, in that its maps, while colorful, contain incorrect dates, events and troop locations.

Evidence of a general sloppiness of research is further reflected in the sparse bibliography, which ignores such critical contemporary works as Bosio's "History of the Order of St. John", as well as more modern efforts like John Guilmartin's "Gunpowder and Galleys." How this surprisingly short list of references got past the eye of Dr. David Chandler, the highly respected editor of the Osprey series, is a source of wonder.

Finally, the author's proposed rules for wargaming the Siege betray his unfamiliarity with the medium; if attempted, the amount of die rolling required by a game player would quickly send them to the hospital with a wrist injury. Its best to just pass them by.

Its not that this so much a 'bad' book, as much as its just so... mediocre. Primarily, it boils down to a retelling of Bradford's tale, but with some flashier pictures and a far heavier hand. A disappointment.

This is one of the very best of the Osprey Campaign series. The author succinctly describes the strategic background to the campaign, opposing plans, leaders and the forces involved. Order of Battle information is a bit sketchy. Once the Turks arrive, it became a bitter fight to the finish between two experienced and fanatical forces. This story is very interesting for military professionals to study because the outcome of the siege was close throughout, requiring imaginative use of "combat multipliers" and sound generalship. Both the heroism and leadership of La Valette are well told by the author. The maps depicting the key actions are excellent. Perhaps there are some minor errors (and what work of history is without error or omission?), but in this book there is a pathos of a long ago battle that is brought to vivid life by the author.

Pretty pictures...but questionable text. Particularly the explanation of why only young dancers perform in Turkey, versus older women in Egypt. He seems to make the assumption Turkish belly dance is too rigorous for "mature" women.

There are some really outstanding photographs in this book, but the scope is somewhat limited to Turkish belly dance. The wonderful photos and illustrations are accompanied by text that seems to indicate a single theme as the author's focus: sex. In my opinion, he's a little single-minded on the idea that belly dance is a sexy dance. Also, don't expect anything but Turkish dance to be discussed in any detail.

If you are interested in history of this form of dance, skip this book. There are better ones. If you're interested more in the photos, you will not be disappointed (some of the costumes are quite inspiring!). I rate this book 5 stars for the photography, and its breadth. For the written part of this book, 2 stars. That averages to 3 1/2 stars, but I really love the photos and illustrations, which I feel outweighs the unsatisfactory writing.

Beutiful photographs of historical and current dancers enhance this reference book about the evolution of the art of Oriental belly dance. Althogh the text is somewhat hard to follow chronologically, it does a good job explaining the evolution of the discipline.
The colour photos of the dancers are gorgeous, especially of the very photogenic Princess Banu. Costumers will appreciate their clarity because there are very few visual references available that show a variety of costume styles.
The list of master dancers should be better explained. How dancers are rated would also be useful.
Consider this a nice addition to your resources on this very old and provocative form of self-expression.

By the time the murder is discovered, there has been so much character development and scene setting that readers probably won't care who the victim is or who did it. When the murderer was identified, I wished he had done in Lucy Stone first. The author did elicit a faint smile when Stone serves a turkey that had fallen on the kitchen floor. This book is as awful as the Thanksgiving meal the heroine serves her boring guests.

Writer/mother/detective Lucy Stone is busy working on interesting news stories, when one falls right into her lap. The death of Metinnicut Indian activist, Curt Nolan. Murdered with a war club. At least that's what was found in his head. Soon Lucy is investigating what seems like thousands of suspects, whom all had something against Curt, a person who seemed to make enemies wherever he went. While it seems easy enough to add a little investigating to her list of chores, it's not as easy as Lucy thinks. Especially since she could be the next to die.

I enjoyed the Lucy Stone Christmas mysteries. But this one just didn't do it for me. I feel that the novel was slow-moving, and at times, downright boring. I hope that my next Lucy Stone mystery is better than this one.

Leslie Meier is an inspirational author. Turkey Day Murder is, in one word, delightful. The plot of this story in Tinker Cove, Maine proves to be innovating. It's a page-turner at its best. What I want to know, and hopefully one of Leslie Meier's readers can help me, is when Leslie Meier's next mystery arrives in bookstores. I haven't heard anything since Turkey Day Murder. I'm worried. Leslie Meier is simply the best mystery writer of all. I hope she hasn't stopped writing...

Caravans to Oblivion takes a journalistic view of the events surrounding the Armenian Holocaust.

The author lays out logically events leading up to, during and following the Holocaust. The journalistic approach gives the reader the chance to understand the history surrounding the events. The book reviews the part that Germany played in its support of Turkey and also Britain and France in their betrayal of Armenia in the post-First World War period. This is no revisionist history, it clearly places the blame on Turkey (tho' not all Turks or any nationality for that matter) for the centrally organized attempt to eliminate an ethnic group. Also at the end the author compares the issues underlying the Armenian Holocaust with those of the Jewish Holocaust.

A great book, a must-read for anyone looking for more depth on this issue and a view into the darker side of human nature.

"~There are many dense and scholarly histories of the awful Armenian genocide by the Turkish government in 1915. But, scholarly though they may be, these histories seldom reflect the agony, the pain, the horror of what was inflicted upon a whole people by a militant religion-driven government bent on using World War I as an excuse to kill an entire class of its residents."~ "Caravans to History.""~ Turkish government gave free rein to Kurdish nomads to pillage the Armenian refugees, most of whom were too aged or too young to resist. There are factual reports of how Armenian men, many of whom had enlisted as a patriotic duty as Turkish citizens, were abused and brutualized by the Turkish Army. government of today horrified and ashamed of the Turkish government of the past.

Genocide is a pure evil; it comes as close to an absolute as anything else I can think of. The Genocide documented in this book was perpetrated by "The Young Turks" against Christians, and in the case of this demented terror the primary target were the people of Armenia.

What makes this mass murder so unique is that the Turkish Government to this day does not accept responsibility for what they did, they do not even admit that the slaughter took place. In a demonstration of arrogance that is supreme, they recently raised a Memorial to the Turks killed by Armenians.

This book was harder to read than others on Genocides that are more familiar, for me it was as difficult to read as "The Rape Of Nanking". I would never insult the memory of any victims, but these last two episodes I mention were particularly brutal, particularly sadistic. Neither were assembly line killings. Like the Jews that were worked to death, Armenians were marched into the desert until their skin blackened and they died. Farm implements were often the murder weapons of choice to dismember victims. The Turkish Soldiers would place bets like their counterparts in Nanking as to the gender of a child a pregnant woman carried. Then they found out who won. The details I leave to your own thoughts.

How outrageous was this? When certain Armenians took matters into their own hands and assassinated the cowardly leaders of Turkey that fled to Germany, German juries let them go. They were appalled by what was done, and the fact the German Military was to a degree complicit.

It is alleged that when confronted with the question of how the world would ever tolerate the "Final Solution" of Hitler's Germany, Hitler was said to have answered, "Who remembers the 1.5 million Armenians", and only 15 years had passed.

Other Countries who have committed crimes against Humanity have admitted their acts some have even paid reparations. Turkey's government remains unique, in that they compare unfavorably to The Germany of the Third Reich.

A dubious distinction.

Betty Mahmmoody has made powerful use of emotional trauma to write a book that is as chilling as it is thrilling, in Not Without My Daughter, an excellent nonfiction read. Her sequal For the Love of a Child is quite redundant and boring, but I admire Betty's objective in bringing awareness to other women who find themselves in a similar situation. Being a proud and informed ultra-orthodox Jewish woman living in Israel, I was dismayed at the disinformation in regard to Jewish law provided by Betty. She tells of a gentile Dutch woman who's secular Israeli-Jewish husband abducted their children and had them raised by Orthodox Jews! Jewish law clearly states that the religion of a child born out of a mixed marriage is determined by its mother.It follows that the Dutch children are definitely not Jewish. Judaism does not engage in missionary activity at all and it is almost impossible to believe that any religious Jew would show an interest in converting these children. (Unless somehow their origin was willfully kept unknown; highly unlikely.) It is my hope that this was an unintentional oversight on behalf of Betty and the publishers and that no deliberate slander against the Jewish religous community was intended. I would feel very honored if Betty herself responds to this!

*For the Love of a Child* picks up where *Not Without My Daughter* left off. We get to hear about Mahmoody's return to the U.S.A. and her joyous reunion with her family. But, it does not stop there. Mahmoody describes her efforts to increase public awareness of the issue of international parental child abduction. As she made her struggles known, she met many people with similar stories. *For the Love of a Child* includes the stories of five of those people. Particularly interesting is Mahmoody's account of the making of the film of *Not Without My Daughter*. And, we can be inspired by Mahtob's reaction to all her experiences. In her first book, Betty Mahmoody told us how her desire for her daughter's welfare motivated her to endure tremendous hardship. In *For the Love of a Child*, she shows how universal such desires are, and how they are driving both individuals and governments all over the world.

Having read Not Without My Daughter years ago, I was filled with a sense of premonition before an attempted kidnapping of my children by their Iranian father, not once but twice. After the second attempt, For the Love of a Child was recommended to me. I appreciated the content, the stories, the differences being presented for various situations and it made me feel like I was not alone. Parents whose children have been abducted often don't know how to react to a horrible situation, and how to deal with emotions such as guilt and the sense of loss. There is a constant sense of not being sure if one is doing the right thing. This book is an eye-opener. For the Love of a Child, in particular, gives a number of scenarios where people can see that an abduction can take place any number of ways, and that abductions are not limited to countries in the Middle East. People must realize that abductions are real, and it is books such as this that put it out there as a reality. The emotions displayed in the book may be difficult for some people to take, and many people will think it is a bunch of BS. I am sorry for them. I hope more books will come out, not just to inform us about situations that happen, but also to give people some ideas on how to protect themselves. The bottom line is that WE as parents are responsible for our children's well-being, and being prepared by reading books such as this, and asking questions, will only help protect our children further. Gaining knowledge, and balancing it with common sense, is what books like this are all about. As for the children and what they feel, sure, they feel confused and disturbed about being taken away from a parent. The important thing to remember is that, along with the right the parents have to see their child(ren), one MUST consider the child(ren)'s well being. As adults, most of us have the ability to choose who we will be with and would not stay two seconds with someone we feel is mistreating us, but children need a parent who is strong to look out for them at all levels. If the child(ren)'s parent takes care to tell them that their other parent loves them, but may not be doing things in a safe manner and environment, then the child(ren) will grow up and better appreciate that which was done for them.

There is a need for more literature on ethnic minorities in Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus. Unfortunately this book is heavily biased and doesn't really help the reader understand the issues. The author completely ignores the slaughter and ethnic cleansing of thousands of Turkish Cypriots by Greek government-supported EOKA guerillas in the 50's, 60's and 70's. He relies on one-dimensional stereotypes to describe the Turks and their involvement in Cyprus. It is also disappointing that Amazon.com did not choose an objective reader to review this book.

Dr. Ioannides's book totally disregard the main fact behind the Turkish Government's decision and turns out to be a book against the muslim part of the world.He disregard that in existence of a conflict there is two part for it. Would be better if written again by objectively explaining more in depth what was the politics of the Greece during 169 through 1974 and also including the currant development in Eagean Sea in 1997, Greece Army trying to take over the Cos island by using the priests and innocent animals!!

This book is evidently written by someone who identifies with 200,000 ethnically cleansed indigenous Cypriots ( i.e. The Greeks )and the 6,000 victims of Turkey's War aginst "little" Cyprus in 1974. The book casts new light on Turkish Government education and the policies and ideas apparently fuelling Turkish Nationalism and it's consequences for Christian minority peoples especially.. Cyprus was a Cold -War "prize" offered to Turkey by the United States to ensure it's continued support against the Soviet Union..And to simultaneously appease the always rampant Turkish nationalism that pervades Turkish culture and politics. This book leads one to conclude that if the major Orthodox Powers bridge the gap militarily with Turkey then military force will ultimately settle the Cyprus,Kurdish and Armenian Questions; given the much reduced strategic value of Turkey to the West , despite the Caspian Oil Fields. It is sad that small countries are often mere pawns of big power "ego" games which try all-to-often to sooth the fanatical and often murderous nationalisms of their people....inorder to gain political favor with them....

The book covers Ottoman Empire from 1650 to demise and founding of Modern Turkey. Included in the story the wars, internal problems, European politics against the empire, internal uprising, modernization efforts and all.There is nothing about scientific or cultural sides of the empire.Although mentiones but there is no extention into Modern Turkey.
There are some interesting stories that makes dry historical information a little juicy.
As I was reading the preface I was astonished author's reasoning using the name "Constantinople" in lieu of current name "Istanbul" for he claims that Istanbul is not in common usage in English, give me a break. Yes Ottomans did not use the name Istanbul for they were not a nation Empire and they did not change the name when they took the city Istanbul but since the introduction of concept "nationalism" into Ottoman Empire by foreign countries within last 150 years, the name was changed to Istanbul like it or not. From the introduction I could feel the bias author had that would effect the writing and that should not be in a scientific book.

Okay, I guess.

The book is horribly boring and a bit to pretentious. The book shines in the end (from the rule of the Triumveriate to the epilog), but until then it is plodding. After getting one-third of the way through, I put of finishing this book for 8 months and have no regrets.

If you like this peroid, there are two better books to read. The first is A HISTORY OF THE BALKAN PENNENSULA by Ferdinand Schevill, which in its 533 pages gives a better understanding of everyone (Bulgars, Vlachs, Byzantines, and Turks) in the area. The other is THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN TURKEY by Bernard Lewis. The latter is memorable if nothing more than its summary of Kemal Ataturk's "This is a hat" speech.

I was interested in how the Ottoman Empire played into the Great War and of what significance the Ottoman Empire played in the " big picture" of the Great War. Alan Palmer did an excelent job of discussing only the end of the Ottoman Empire and answering all of my questions. Be forewarned about this book, I had to have a dictionary handy to get through each chapter. This book is not for someone that does not want to be challenged with new words. Unlike another review of this book, I found that the more I read and understood how Turkey fit into the European puzzle, I became more interested. True, my interest is very focused, however, this book provide the information I was looking for.

Nilufer Gole is a professor of Sociology in an Istanbul University and a frequently quoted author in the Turkish and foreign press. The topic of this strangely named book, "The Forbidden Modern" being of great interest to me, I wanted to read her work. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to understand the author's English and her ideas. She has invented new words that do not exist in the English language, and sounds like she is translating from one language to another which makes for a very painful reading. I also wanted to know more about her own personal feelings about the veiling issue since she is from the same "gender", "nationality", and possibly same "religion" as her subjects. But she never relaxes in the book and keeps struggling with big sounding but incomprehensible words, strange ideas, and thoughts. My recommendation to Ms. Gole would be to team up with an American or a British writer for her next project to make her ideas better understandable to the English speaking world.

The "headscarf issue" is a point of perennial debate in contemporary Turkey, the symbolic focal point for a key contest between opposing views of the place for public displays of Muslim piety and questions of state control versus individual choice. In the early nineties, when the Turkish version of this work was published, it was revolutionary: one of the first real attempts by a leftist, secular Turkish scholar to come to terms with the arguments posited by the Islamists. In the years that have passed, a particularly rich literature on Turkish Islamist movements has developed and, in some respects, Gole's work has become somewhat dated. Her lengthy treatment of the symbolism of women's liberation in Ottoman and then Kemalist reform (in her words, "the touchstone of Westernization") are excellent. Her work on Islamist conceptions of women's issues is still worth reading, but her research seems to have been limited to interviews with Islamist students and a perusal of the Islamist press. Gole is still worth reading, but articles by scholars such as Jenny White may be of greater value to the casual reader.

Previous reviewers have complained about Gole's English. I must confess I found it only occasionally awkward. There is, however, a fair amount of sociological jargon. I don't think the text is beyond the ability of advanced undergraduates (indeed, I have assigned it in undergraduate seminars), but it may be off-putting for some.

This is an interesting study of women's conditions in the most strictly secular country in the world. Even though the Turkish state and the majority of the Turkish people strongly oppose veiling and such pseudo-religious attacks on women, there has always been a small group of opportunists seeking to gain power by exploiting and misrepresenting religion. The backwardness of the majority of Muslims outside of Turkey strengthens the hands of religious demagogues within Turkey. So do the political Islam of Iran and Arabia. Add to this the rapid pace of industrial development in Turkey and the consequent alienation of the rural population and you get an explosive mixture. This book gives an interesting sociological analysis of these conflicts. Turkey (the most secular, democratic, European country) bordering the Middle East will no doubt triumph over the past and present demogogues of pseudo-religion.

If you're looking for a useful guide to Turkey, don't waste your money on this book. Its authors obviously had no real feel for the country or understanding of its history and their suggestions are not of much help. The Lonely Planet guide is far and away the best available.

Just got back from a six week trek and island hop round Greece! I had a wonderful time and couldn't have met my budget and rigorous itinerary without Let's Go's extensive budget hotel and restaurant options. I though the writing style was witty and I knew I could trust the hip nightlife picks for my more debauched nights on the islands!

Let's Go excels in its detailed, sensitive coverage of the Greek isles. I couldn't have made it through without Let's Go's help finding the out-of-the way bargain hotels, connecting from island to island, and figuring out which ancient sites and Byzantine monasteries were worth seeing. Admittedly the Turkey section was a little bit weak, although I loved the Black Sea Coast coverage; the Sinop listings included a few cool bars where I met Turkish college kids, Austrian ski bumbs and American archaeologists. The book could stand to improve its coverage of the neighborhoods of Athens and of Eastern Anatolia, but in terms of budget options and nightlife coverage the other guides don't even compare.