Turkey Book Talk #200 – Anthony Gad Bigio on “A Sephardi Turkish Patriot: Gad Franco in the Turmoil of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic” (Hamilton Books).
The book describes the turbulent and difficult life of Anthony’s grandfather, Gad Franco, a prominent journalist, social activist and lawyer in the late Ottoman and early republican eras. It also charts his gradual disillusionment after advocating Jewish integration into Ottoman and later Turkish society, which culminated in his imprisonment and impoverishment following the 1942 Wealth Tax.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #198 – Şebnem Gümüşcü, associate professor of political science at Middlebury College, on “Democracy or Authoritarianism: Islamist Governments in Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia” (Cambridge University Press).
The book looks in depth at how intra-party factional struggles were key in shaping the AKP’s authoritarian direction in Turkey, while also comparing this with Islamist parties that won elections in Egypt and Tunisia.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Spotify / Google Podcasts / PlayerFM / Listen Notes
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury (including the book from this episode), transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #197 – Constanze Letsch on “Territorial Stigmatisation: Urban Renewal and Displacement in a Central Istanbul Neighbourhood” (Transcript).
The book examines a controversial project to demolish and rebuild Istanbul’s historic, troubled Tarlabaşı neighbourhood, the impact it had on locals and what that tells us about today’s Turkey.
Download the episode or listen below:
Download the ebook for free via the Transcript website.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / PlayerFM / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #196 – Ci Demi on his photographs of Istanbul, which present an eerie, unflattering image of the city through depopulated landscapes, urban sprawl and surreal juxtapositions.
His latest photobook ”Sehri Fikri” (Notions of a City) was recently published by Onagöre.
Download the episode or listen below:
Check out Ci Demi’s work on Instagram.
Listen to the Spotify playlist “Something Is Missing”, created to accompany the “Sehri Fikri” photobook.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / PlayerFM / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury (including the book from this episode), transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #195 – Political communications strategist Derin Koçer on Turkey’s critical recent presidential and parliamentary elections.
The conversation addresses how economic woes may actually have helped Erdogan’s campaign, why the main opposition CHP repeatedly fails, whether nationalism is the real winner to emerge from the ballot boxes, and what awaits Turkey in the next five years.
Download the episode or listen below:
Read and subscribe to Derin Koçer’s Substack.
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / PlayerFM / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap.
Turkey Book Talk #190 – Maureen Freely on the life and work of the late Tezer Özlü.
Her translation of Özlü’s 1980 novel “Cold Nights of Childhood” has just been published for the first time in English by Serpent’s Tail.
First published in 1980, the book follows a narrator whose life closely mirrors Özlü’s own, growing up in Istanbul before periods in Berlin and Paris, unhappy marriages, and tortuous stays in psychiatric institutions. Despite being set against the backdrop of a uniquely turbulent era in Turkey’s modern history, the book is also characterised by its sexual frankness and political ambivalence.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / PlayerFM / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent weekly newsletter Turkey Recap.
Ryan Gingeras on the last days of the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1922
December 6, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #182 – Ryan Gingeras, professor of history in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, California, on “The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1922” (Allen Lane).
The conversation addresses events between the end of the First World War and the declaration of the Turkish Republic, as well as how these years are remembered in today’s Turkey.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Enno Maessen on nostalgia and cosmopolitanism in Istanbul’s Beyoglu
November 22, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #181 – Enno Maessen, lecturer in political history at Utrecht University, on “Representing Modern Istanbul: Urban History and International Institutions in Twentieth Century Beyoglu” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book examines convulsive changes in Istanbul’s historical Beyoglu district over the past century.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Elise Massicard on muhtars, the state and society in Turkey
October 25, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #179 – Elise Massicard, senior researcher at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po, on “Street-Level Governing: Negotiating the State in Urban Turkey” (Stanford University Press).
The book takes a deep dive into the world of the muhtar, the lowest rung of the administrative ladder in Turkey, looking first-hand at how they operate and chart a course between local residents and higher authorities in the country.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Jonathan Parry on British encounters with the Ottomans
October 11, 2022
Turkey Book Talk #178 – Jonathan Parry, Professor of Modern British History at the University of Cambridge, on “Promised Lands: The British and the Ottoman Middle East” (Princeton University Press).
The book charts the development of British imperial interests in the Middle East from the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War in the 1850s, examining Britain’s engagement with the Ottoman authorities and with local communities of Arabs, Kurds, Christians and Jews across the region.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Jan-Markus Vomel on Islamism and masculinity in Turkey
August 30, 2022
Turkey Book Talk 175 – Jan-Markus Vomel, doctoral student at the University of Konstanz, on his article “Pathos and Discipline: Islamist Masculinity in Turkey, 1950-2000”, published in the journal Zeithistorische Forschungen (Studies in Contemporary History).
The article examines how political Islam in Turkey weaponised ideas of virility, manliness and strength to mobilise against what it saw as the emasculating forces of secularism and Westernisation.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Check out Jan’s previous appearance on the podcast from November 2020.
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Turkey Book Talk episode 173 – Gönül Bozoğlu, Leverhulme Research Fellow at Newcastle University, on “Museums, Emotion and Memory Culture: The Politics of the Past in Turkey” (Routledge).
The book focuses on the Panorama 1453 Museum in Istanbul and the Atatürk and War of Independence Museum in Ankara to show how history in Turkey is often a battleground where contemporary identities clash for supremacy.
Download the episode or listen below:
Listen to Turkey Book Talk: iTunes / PodBean / Stitcher / Acast / Spotify / RSS
Follow : Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 35% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, links to related content upon publication of each episode, and over 200 book reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
Check out and sign up to the excellent Turkey Recap weekly newsletter.
Turkey Book Talk 