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Edward J. Erickson

Edward J. Erickson. Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003. 402 pages.

Although the Ottoman Empire was led by warlike leaders carrying out policies of aggression, by the 19th Century it had become known as "The Sick Man of Europe." It was not, however, until the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 when the forces of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro formed the Balkan League to fight the Ottoman Empire that it was thoroughly defeated. Specific reasons for the defeat of the Empire are examined by Erickson from the point of view of military history as well as from the perspective of the Ottoman Army. Basing his research mainly on Turkish General Staff's official histories, Erickson constructs a detailed analysis of the Ottoman defeat. His book may be the first to detail the specific reasons for the Ottoman defeat, thus providing an important contribution to the historiography of the Ottoman Empire.

The book's title, Defeat in Detail, comes from a "doctrinal military term that means to defeat an enemy by destroying small portions of its armies instead of engaging its entire strength," as Erickson explains in his Preface (p. xvii). In his Conclusion, he relates this term to the Ottoman Army: "The Ottoman Army was decisively defeated in detail during the First Balkan War. Unable to achieve the necessary mass, portions of their armies were isolated and beaten in widely separated campaigns" (p. 331).

A retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army now teaching in the U.S. while working on his Ph.D, Erickson has the qualifications and understanding needed to write a book of this type that focuses on the operational level of the campaigns of the Balkan Wars. The book is a prequel to Erickson's 2001 book, Ordered to Die: A history of the Ottoman Army in the First World War. In addition to the text of the book consisting of 11 chapters covering the period from 1877 to 1913...

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Edward J. Erickson. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:35, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1688680.html