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Book Cover
E-book
Author Covey, Eric, author

Title Americans at war in the Ottoman Empire : US mercenary force in the Middle East / Eric Covey
Edition [Paperback edition]
Published London ; New York, NY : I.B. Tauris, 2020
©2019

Copies

Description 1 online resource (x, 292 pages) : illustrations
Series Library of Ottoman studies ; vol. 62
Library of Ottoman studies ; v. 62.
Contents Introduction -- 1. Memory and Exceptionalism at the Battle of Derna, 1805 -- 2. Sovereign Equality among Men and Nations, 1815-28 -- 3. Literary Mercenaries in Istanbul, 1831-53 -- 4. The Monstrous Geography of Central Africa, 1874-75 -- 5. Mercenary Diplomacy on the Nile, 1869-82
Summary Americans at War in the Ottoman Empire examines the role of mercenary figures in negotiating relations between the United States and the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. Mercenaries are often treated as historical footnotes, yet their encounters with the Ottoman world contributed to US culture and the impressions they left behind continue to influence US approaches to Africa and the Middle East. The book's analysis of these mercenary encounters and their legacies begins with the Battle of Derna in 1805-in which the US flag was raised above a battlefield for the first time outside of North America with the help of a mercenary army-and concludes with the British occupation of Egypt in 1882-which was witnessed and criticized by many of the US Civil War veterans who worked for the Egyptian government in the 1870s and 1880s. By focusing these mercenary encounters through the lenses of memory, sovereignty, literature, geography, and diplomacy, Americans at War in the Ottoman Empire reveals the ways in which mercenary force, while marginal in terms of its frequency and scope, produced important knowledge about the Ottoman world and helped to establish the complicated relationship of intimacy and mastery that exists between Americans in the United States and people in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, South Sudan, and Turkey. --Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 06, 2022)
Subject Mercenary troops -- United States
Mercenary troops
SUBJECT Turkey -- History -- Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85138802
United States -- History -- Tripolitan War, 1801-1805. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140191
Middle East -- History, Military
Subject Middle East
Turkey
United States
Genre/Form History
Military history
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781786734891
1786734893
Other Titles US mercenary force in the Middle East
United States mercenary force in the Middle East