Turkey Book Talk episode 169 – Murat Metinsoy, professor of political science and international relations at Istanbul University, on “The Power of the People: Everyday Resistance and Dissent in the Making of Modern Turkey, 1923-38” (Cambridge University Press).
The book takes a bottom-up approach to examine how ordinary people’s reaction to Kemalist reforms shaped, modified or softened how those reforms were implemented on the ground.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 168 – Reuben Silverman on “Borderline Personalities: Lives at the Political, Social and Geographic Edges of Modern Turkey” (Libra Books).
The book brings together pieces from his website largely focusing on figures from the social, political and cultural margins to illustrate broader themes of modern Turkish history.
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Also check out Reuben’s previous appearance on the podcast from May 2019.
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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.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 167 – Sarah-Neel Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the Maryland Institute College of Art, on “Metrics of Modernity: Art and Development in Postwar Turkey” (University of California Press).
The book paints a vivid portrait of Turkey’s art world in the 1950s and how it reflected early Cold War ideas of national development, individual enterprise and global integration.
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Suat Kınıklıoğlu on Eurasianism in Turkey
April 26, 2022
Turkey Book Talk episode 166 – Suat Kınıklıoğlu on his report “Eurasianism in Turkey”, published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs’ Centre for Applied Turkey Studies.
The report examines the influence and scope of Turkish-style Eurasianism, a worldview favouring the country’s departure from Nato in favour of closer strategic alignment with Russia and/or China.
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Andrea Lemieux on the pleasures of Turkish wine
March 29, 2022
Turkey Book Talk episode 164 – Andrea Lemieux on “The Essential Guide to Turkish Wine”.
The book covers the regions, grapes and history of winemaking in Turkey, as well as the political and economic challenges facing producers in the country today.
Lemieux writes about (mostly Turkish) wine at thequirkycork.com.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 162 – York Norman, professor of history at Buffalo State College, on “Celal Nuri: Young Turk Modernizer and Muslim Nationalist” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book examines the life of Celal Nuri, a journalist and politician whose career spanned the late Ottoman and early republican periods.
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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 title included in 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.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 161 – Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal, assistant director of the British Institute at Ankara, on “Britain’s Levantine Empire, 1914-1923” (Oxford University Press).
The book examines British military occupation in Istanbul, Salonica and Alexandria through the letters, diaries and memoirs of servicemen during and after the First World War.
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As mentioned in the episode – if you’re interested in the subject you may also want to check out episode 142 – Malte Fuhrmann on cosmopolitan life in port cities of the late Ottoman era
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.
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Dilek Kurban on Turkey, the Kurdish question and the ECHR
February 1, 2022
Turkey Book Talk episode 160 – Dilek Kurban, Max Weber postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute and adjunct faculty at the Hertie School in Berlin, on “Limits of Supranational Justice: The European Court of Human Rights and Turkey’s Kurdish Conflict” (Cambridge University Press).
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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 episodes, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 158 – Çiğdem Oğuz, research fellow at the University of Bologna’s Department of History and Cultures, on “Moral Crisis in the Ottoman Empire: Society, Politics and Gender during WWI” (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury).
The book examines debates about morality in the late Ottoman era, when mounting European cultural influence triggered anxiety about the loss of traditional religious values among many.
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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, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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Turkey Book Talk episode 157 – Murat R. Siviloğlu, assistant professor in Turkish Cultural History at Trinity College Dublin, on “The Emergence of Public Opinion: State and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire” (Cambridge University Press).
The idea of “public opinion” is generally associated with the emergence of a middle class, independent of the state, in Western Europe in the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire is generally seen as outside this process, but Siviloğlu argues that Ottoman society developed a realm of “public opinion” that had a crucial effect on political developments in the late 19th century.
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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Ramazan Aras on the past and present of the Turkey-Syria border
December 7, 2021
Turkey Book Talk episode 156 – Ramazan Aras, professor of social and cultural anthropology at Istanbul’s Ibn Haldun University, on “The Wall: The Making and Unmaking of the Turkish-Syrian Border” (Palgrave Macmillan).
The book examines the effect on local Kurdish communities of the foundation of the Turkey-Syria border in 1923 and its hardening in subsequent decades, leading most recently to Turkey’s building of a hi-tech security wall along the length of the border.
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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Marc David Baer on the Ottomans as khans, caesars and caliphs
November 9, 2021
Turkey Book Talk episode #154 – Marc David Baer, professor of international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science, on “The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs” (Basic Books).
The book makes the case that the Ottoman Empire is an inseparable part of European history – not as antithesis of the Christian West but as an intimate and active participant in the continent’s shifting cultural and political tides.
Download the episode or listen below:
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Become a member on Patreon to support Turkey Book Talk. Members get a 30% discount on all Turkey/Ottoman History books published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, transcripts of every interview, transcripts of the whole archive, and over 200 reviews covering Turkish and international fiction, history and politics.
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