A Land of Aching Hearts: The Middle East in the Great War.

• Author: Ozdemir, Cagatay
• Position: Book review

A Land of Aching Hearts: The Middle East in the Great War

By Leila Tarazi Fawaz

Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2014, 416 pages, $35.00, ISBN: 9780674735491.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

THE FIRST WORLD WAR (WWI) was the biggest war that the world had ever seen, at least until the beginning of the 20th century, due to the large number of people and countries embroiled in the conflict, the extent of the territories involved, and the wide usage of technology for the first time. The war, which started in 1915 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist, lasted for 4 years and ended in 1919 with the defeat of the Central Powers that consisted of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. WWI's social, economic and cultural influences continue to have consequences today. These upshots are notably visible in the Middle East, arguably one of the regions that suffered the most from the war. The war brought an end to 400 years of Ottoman rule in the Middle East. At the war's close, the regions' geographical borders were redrawn, the gap between ethnic and religious groups widened, relations among states changed considerably, and new ideologies began to spread. WWI sowed the seeds of the conflicts that still continue in the region today.

For this reason, many historians and academicians have examined, analyzed and tried to make sense of the First World War for years. Yet most of these works take an academic approach towards the subject and aim to show the wider picture to modern day readers. Notably, most of these books have approached the topic from an outsider perspective. In contrast, Leila Tarazi Fawaz has adopted an insider attitude in her book A Land of Aching Hearts, intertwining major historical events with glimpses of ordinary people's lives. Rather than portraying a soulless historical period that consists only of dates and truces, Fawaz creates a reality by focusing on the life of the common people. Her main aim is to present contemporary readers with the perspectives of common people who witnessed the First World War's atrocities. For this reason, she uses first-hand resources such as diaries and letters that were written during the period, and includes the thoughts and concerns of different people. The contribution that Fawaz adds to the official history is an emotional element which is lacking in many works focused on the events of WWI. For instance, Fawas touches on the story of a young woman called...