Giles Milton's account of the destruction of Smyrna in September 1922 is the most accessible English-language history of the city's catastrophic end as a cosmopolitan Levantine port. Drawing on memoirs, diaries, and diplomatic archives, Milton reconstructs the burning of the Greek and Armenian quarters, the evacuation of survivors by Allied warships standing offshore, and the effective end of İzmir's multi-ethnic character.
The book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the city's present character — shaped as much by what was lost as by what survives. Milton is not a neutral narrator, but his research is solid and the story he tells is extraordinary.