This edited volume originated in a conference commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, which took place in September 2014. While, as the editors point out, the impact of the First World War on Cyprus remained largely ignored as an area of study, since the conference took place, Andrekos Varnava has published two key works focusing on this subject. Edited books depend upon the efficiency of both the editors and the contributors. On p. 7 the editors take the main responsibility for this delay, but also make the telling remark that ‘one or two of the contributors are entitled to their share of the blame’. This volume therefore complements the research carried out by Varnava, but the variability of the scholarship found within the individual essays means that this book does not have the consistent brilliance of Varnava’s volumes.

One of the issues which distinguishes the work of Varnava lies in the fact that all roads do not lead to 1960 and 1974 (even though he has covered the events of these years in a perceptive and innovative way in some of his numerous publications), meaning that he does not have an obsession with enosis, as this volume does. The supposed offer of Cyprus to Greece in 1915 becomes a recurring theme in this book, even though it seems impossible to imagine that enosis, a word used 220 times in a volume on Cyprus in the First World War, would have taken place as the British Empire reached its zenith, as the constant analysis of this episode demonstrates. This fixation on union with Greece comes from the fact that none of the contributors to this volume have First World War backgrounds, meaning that their main point of reference consists of the history of Cyprus, their main specialism. Most of the essays appreciate the importance of the First World War in Europe and the globe, and contrast this with its relatively limited impact on Cyprus, but virtually none ground their essays in the historiography of the conflict as a whole.

The volume divides into four parts. The first deals with ‘The Wider Picture’, in which the magisterial essay by Robert Holland, addressing precisely this issue, stands out. The piece by Anastasia Yiangou, previously published in this journal (44.1, 2020), perhaps because the author could understandably not wait until the appearance of this volume, deals, in a well-researched essay, with the Orthodox Church and enosis during the First World War. Altay Nevzat produces an interesting but short essay on ‘Cyprus’s Moslem Turks’ during the conflict.

The second part addresses ‘Domestic Aspects’, with essays of varying quality. The piece by Andreas Karyos on the Cypriot press and the First World War simply focuses upon August 1915 and November 1918. What about everything that happened in between? Kazamias produces an interesting piece entitled ‘Life and Death in the Macedonian Mule Corps (MMC), 1916-20’, a theme about which Varnava has published an entire volume, as Kazamias acknowledges, meaning that, while this essay contains some interesting information, it needs reading alongside the book on the subject by Varnava. The article by Antigone Heraclidou on ‘Convalescent Homes and Prisoners of War and Refugee Camps in Cyprus during the First World War’ is too short, needed more research and seems rushed. We needed more on each of the groups covered using both the British National Archives and the State Archives of Cyprus, the latter of which she does not appear to have consulted.

Part 3 deals with ‘Social and Economic Impact’, mostly the latter. The short essay by Maria Panayiotou, currently Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment in Cyprus, takes a macro approach, full of graphs, essentially focusing upon imports and exports into Cyprus during the Great War. The piece by Kyriakos Iakovidis, based especially upon material in the State Archives of Cyprus, is one of the best researched and most original pieces in the volume, focusing especially upon the economic impact of the War on the people of Cyprus and demonstrating that it did have consequences for them because of a rise in prices in particular, but also offering interesting insights into emigration from the island.

The final part, on ‘Aftermath and Legacy’, contains essays by the late Heinz Richter and his former PhD student Faustmann. Richter’s piece, based mainly on secondary sources, rather than archival material, especially the volume by Georghallides covering Cyprus between 1918 and 1926, nevertheless covers all aspects of ‘Cyprus and the Peace Negotiation in Paris’. Richter demonstrates how the small Cypriot delegation, which spent most of its time in London, retained the status almost of irrelevant insects in the machinations of great power politics which took place at the end of the War involving Greece and the British Empire in particular, against the background of the enduring conflict which led to the Treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne. The final essay by Faustmann on ‘The Impact and Legacy of the First World War on British Colonial Rule in Cyprus’ provides a good summary, focusing upon a series of themes, including, perhaps most interestingly, the impact of the conflict on the status of the ‘Muslim/Turkish Cypriot community’, tackling issues including emigration to Turkey following the Lausanne Treaty.

Edited books are often difficult to bring together and depend on the co-operation and efficiency of the authors that contribute to them. This particular volume, while not quite covering all angles, does look at diplomacy, politics, economics and society, although especially the first two of these. It contains essays of varying lengths and some really weak pieces, as well as some well researched and original contributions. There are also inconsistencies in referencing, which the editors and copy editors should have eliminated. Nevertheless, this book, together with the recent volumes by Varnava, provide the foundations of a historiography of Cyprus and the First World War, leaving it to other scholars to move this theme forward.