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Title: Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 : Prelude to the First World War (Warfare and History) by Richard C. Hall ISBN: 0-415-22947-2 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: the best book in English on the subject
Comment: I've just finished writing a book about the Ottoman Army's participation in the Balkan Wars. Consequently, I've read (or scanned) almost every book ever written in English, German, Turkish, and French about the Balkan Wars.
Dr. Hall's book is the only book written in English which lays out the flow of events in an understandable format that links the various theaters together. Nobody in the past eighty years has ever done a better job in explaining the military side of this war. If you only read a single book on this subject - this is it.
The challenge of writing a balanced book on this subject is extremely difficult due to the problem of access to available sources and the problem of fluency in multiple (and uncommon) languages. Dr. Hall has done a creditable job in crafting a capstone book that captures the overall strategic picture of the Balkans in 1912/1913. While some readers may find criticisms (maps, editing, use of mainly Bulgarian sources, etc.) this should not obscure what the author has achieved.
I enjoyed the book and I refered to it frequently while writing my own book when I neeeded to fall back on a meaningful context and framework of understanding. Finally, "The Balkan Wars 1912-1913" will leave you hungry for more information about this important war. I hope that it will stimulate interest in a long neglected subject. It's worth the money!
Rating: 3
Summary: Good but flawed synthesis
Comment: This is a readable brief account of a series of conflicts about which far too little has been written in English, which should serve non-Balkan specialists well. But it falls considerably short of what one would like, even for a book of 176 pages. There are an embarrassing number of editing lapses (e.g., repetition of the sentence beginning "Negotiations..." on p. 69) and typos, for which the publisher bears some responsibility. Forms of proper names are mostly Bulgarian (with inconsistencies), with no cross-reference to, say, the usual Yugoslav spelling of "Pashich" and rendering of Turkish names, when they are given at all, without dotless i's, etc. Previous reviewers have commented on the grossly inadequate maps; the photo on the cover of the paperback edition whets my appetite for more illustrations, which are completely lacking. Anyone with access to a large public or university library should look for old literature on the war, such as Hermenegild Wagner's _With the Victorious Bulgarians_ (1913), which has very good maps of the Thracian theater.
Hall depends heavily on Slavic sources on the wars, especially Bulgarian ones, which he has thorough control of, but the results are some quite idiosyncratic casualty figures. (The Turkish General Staff's official history of the war, _Balkan harbi_, is cited nowhere, presumably because the author doesn't read Turkish.) The Serbian army's casualties seem far too small, considering that they took every Turkish position by direct assault (e.g., less than 4,000 Serb casualties for the battle of Kumanovo, as opposed to 12,000 Turkish losses). If the Turks had simply retreated instantly, the low casualties would seem understandable, but the Ottoman casualties given for the Macedonian theater are quite high, so one might conclude either that Serbian casualties were greatly underplayed or that the progress of the battle is totally misrepresented. The Turkish casualty figure of 100,000 for both theaters seems incredibly high (though Edward Erickson's _Ordered to Die_ , by an author who knows Turkish sources, gives a far more astounding figure, 250,000.)
Hall is addicted to military and diplomatic second-guessing, which grows tiresome by the end of the book. Though he puts his finger on the more consequential faux pas (the inability of the Russian government to arbitrate Balkan League conflicts, the confusion in Sofia at the opening of the 2nd Balkan War), I would prefer analysis of why errors were made to shoulda-coulda. I would also question Hall's understanding of cholera (which rivaled combat as a source of death); it was most likely not spread by armies, but by soldiers' repeated use of untreated water-hence its reoccurrence in eastern Thrace.
Above all, even for a short book, one would like more on the human rather than strictly political consequences of the war. Virtually nothing is said of the fate of the millions of ethnic Turks and Slavic-speaking Muslims trapped in non-Muslim states as a result of the Balkan Wars. Maybe Hall himself will someday write a more complete book on the wars (and, I hope, get better editorial support).
Rating: 4
Summary: Fills a gap in 20th Century European History
Comment: Most students of modern Europe will have learned something of the Balkan Wars, those two localized conflicts involving Turkey which occurred on the eve of, and were among the causes of, World War I. But few studies of 20th century Europe, or even of the Great War and its causes, provide more than mere mention of these obscure wars. Richard Hall goes far towards remedying the problem in this concise (143 pp., 165 pp. with endnotes and bibliography) study.
Hall covers much of the basic ground: why the wars occurred; who was allied with whom and why; the size, training, armaments and disposition of the competing forces; the strategy and tactics of the campaigns; and, a succinct explanation of the results. Hall also appears well-equipped to analyze these wars. In addition to relying on contemporaneous accounts by French, German, British and American observers, Hall also cites numerous works in Serbo-Croation and Bulgarian. Perhaps one reason why there has never appeared a good summary of the Balkan Wars is that a command of several languages is needed in order to write a reliable one. Except for Greek and Turkish sources, Hall seems to have examined the available primary sources.
Only two criticisms can be fairly lodged against this study. First, while readers will recognize that this work was intended to be rather short ( it forms a part of the Warfare and History series under the general editorship of Jeremy Black), Hall might have spent a little more time integrating the Balkan Wars into the larger picture of instability which characterized early 20th century Europe. How did the Balkan Wars affect the attitudes, if not the alignments, of the Great Powers? Did the Balkan Wars really bring the Great Powers closer to European War? Could a remedy to the competing interests of the countries involved have been fashioned in such a way as to defuse the Balkan powder keg? Hall's study might have dealt with these larger questions more thoroughly.
Of less importance, the text is marred by numerous editing errors and by inadequate maps. I always read history with historical atlases by my side; but none that I own provide good maps of these wars. The publishers missed a real opportunity to remedy this problem with Hall's book; more detailed and well-developed maps would have greatly enhanced the text.
Still, this book goes far towards filling in a significant gap in modern European history and is recommended for students of modern Europe and particularly for those interested in the Balkans or in the origins of the First World War.
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