|
Paradise Lost: Smyrna, 1922
|
List Price: $27.95
Our Price: $18.45
Your Save: $ 9.50 ( 34% )
Recent Price Activity
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
 *Eligible orders over $25 ship free
Manufacturer: Basic Books
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 355
EAN: 9780465011193
ISBN: 0465011195
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2008-07-07
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
On Saturday, September 9, 1922, the victorious Turkish cavalry rode into Smyrna, the richest and most cosmopolitan city in the Ottoman Empire. The city’s vast wealth created centuries earlier by powerful Levantine dynasties, its factories teemed with Greeks, Armenians, Turks, and Jews. Together, they had created a majority Christian city that was unique in the Islamic world. But to the Turkish nationalists, Smyrna was a city of infidels. In the aftermath of the First World War and with the support of the Great Powers, Greece had invaded Turkey with the aim of restoring a Christian empire in Asia. But by the summer of 1922, the Greeks had been vanquished by Atatürk’s armies after three years of warfare. As Greek troops retreated, the non-Muslim civilians of Smyrna assumed that American and European warships would intervene if and when the Turkish cavalry decided to enter the city. But this was not to be. On September 13, 1922, Turkish troops descended on Smyrna. They rampaged first through the Armenian quarter, and then throughout the rest of the city. They looted homes, raped women, and murdered untold thousands. Turkish soldiers were seen dousing buildings with petroleum. Soon, all but the Turkish quarter of the city was in flames and hundreds of thousands of refugees crowded the waterfront, desperate to escape. The city burned for four days; by the time the embers cooled, more than 100,000 people had been killed and millions left homeless. Based on eyewitness accounts and the memories of survivors, many interviewed for the first time, Paradise Lost offers a vivid narrative account of one of the most vicious military catastrophes of the modern age.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: The book is all lie
Comment: It seems like the author has no clue about the history. The Turkish never tortured anybody during the independence war. On the contrary, other nations including the Greeks tortured the Turkish people. I condemn the author because his research in his book is very weak and he tells the opposite stories. It is funny that if he could do enough research about the city and its history, he would not have been in a funny situation like this because there are enough evidence to refute his theories. Don't waste your time and money since there are tons of books that tell the real stories.
Customer Rating:
Summary: How the story is told (know this, and delve in)
Comment: B. J. O'Brien's review is quite helpful and accurate in its critique. I am appreciative of Milton's work on this subject; it adds to the many accounts of Smyrna's tragedy. It also reads well. But I too think that the publisher and author have a historical obligation to clarify the perspective of the book in that the Smyrna we are told about is through the eyes and lives of the Levantines. Despite the horrific accounts told in the later half of the book of the average citizen of Smyrna, the narrative has us peering down from Bournabat as a Levantine, sipping tea, witnessing the tragedy mostly as an inconvenience of lifestyle. Because of this narrative, the millions of Armenians, Greeks and Turks seem distant to Smyrna, and if you are not verse in the other experiences of what happened, as a reader you may simply find yourself exclaiming, "Oh dear! Who will serve the tea?". I left this book with not only the horrific imagery of those September days (and years leading up to them), but also feeling that I was supposed to mourn the romantic lifestyles of the Levantines and feel it was an equal tragedy that there would be no more spring balls, maids, and gardens with wisteria. Of course it is valuable to have Smyrna's account from any group or individual, but without clarifying this to the reader it perpetuates a hegemonic pattern of viewing history and the experiences of minority groups as peripheral and invisible.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good book
Comment: The book was delivered in a timely fashion.Aditionally this book was difficult to put down.It evoked feelings of sadness,anger and disgust.I love thi book and the author eloquently articulated the theme and plot.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and even funny
Comment: As a native of Izmir I was really interested in this book and got to meet the author in a book review a couple of months. When I asked him how long he actually got to stay in Izmir, I got vague answers such as "not long enough maybe a couple of weeks". Of course, why would you wanna stay in a city about which you're writing a book more than a couple of weeks (or days maybe I'm still not very clear)?
In his book he claims that Greeks constituted the overwhelming majority followed by Armenians. According to him, Turks and Jews were really small minorities. Yet, I'm very curious about where he got these numbers because in his book review he clearly stated that he could not study the Ottoman archives because they weren't accessible. He was quickly corrected by an American scholar in the audience who apparently spent the summer studying the Ottoman archives. In fact even he did a quick internet search in his home in London while writing a book about Izmir he would have found at least this document where Greeks are just a big minority and Jews actually outnumbered Armenians:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Proportions_des_populations_en_Asie_Mineure_statistique_officielle_d1914.png
It is also interesting that there is no Jewish account in his book in fact he rarely mentions the Jews who lived in the city. When I asked him the reason his exact words were "well they were always pro-Turkish in this issue". Of course, he had to pick and choose the people who were anti-Turkish for his book.
The list is long. He of course does not mention the chief of the Smyrna Fire Department, Paul Grescovich who stated that Armenians started the fire. Again why would you even believe the chief of the fire department, what would he know about the fire?! He talks about the American missionary Alexander MacLachlan but conveniently omits his eye-witness account that states that Armenians set the fire. Instead, Mr. Milton talks about how Alexander MacLachlan could not stay in the city anymore because the new regime did not allow foreign owned schools; which is quite funny to me because I am a proud graduate of Lycee Saint-Joseph d'Izmir (I'm not over 100 years old by the way), my mother is a graduate of American Collegiate Institute, my grand-father attended a Jewish elementary school in 1930s; at the peak of the "regime"! I guess Mr. Milton did not get to visit these schools during his short stay in Izmir.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great to see Milton back doing what he does best
Comment: I am the avid Giles Milton fan who wrote a somewhat negative review about his first foray into Fiction - see my write-up on Edward Trencom's Nose - - and am excited about his return to his master craft - writing an in depth history book that reads like a novel, and not like the boorish stuff I had to read in college history classes.
I knew nothing about this event, or even the fact that Greece and Turkey fought battles AFTER World War I ended. I knew practically nothing about the displaced Greeks living in Asia Minor. What I did already know was how badly humans can treat each other - and this book reiterated that notion. I thank Milton for enlightening me into this cloudy - and dark for that matter - portion of our recent history.
I rate this 4 stars because I compare it to his previous outstanding works. As stated my previous review, everyone should read Samurai William.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
