Introduction

The chapter introduces readers to the geographic and chronological extent of British military expansion in the eastern Mediterranean that is assessed in the book. It further explores changing definitions of the Levant and Levantine and explains why they are an appropriate appellation for this imperial project. It critiques predominant explanations of British military expansion and contraction in the region and sets forth an alternative model for how the geographical imagination of soldiers and statesmen informed policy making. It then outlines the sources that research for the book is centred on—namely the letters, diaries, and memoirs of British servicemen, alongside official state documents—and explores how these been read and utilized in literature on the First World War. Finally, it provides an overview of the structure of the book.