The Transformation of Turkey Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era

by Göçek, Fatma Müge

• ISBN13: 9781780764863
• ISBN10: 1780764863
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-02-26
• Publisher: I.B. Tauris

Summary

In 1923, the Modern Turkish Republic rose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, proclaiming a new era in the Middle East. However, many of the contemporary issues affecting Turkish state and society today have their roots not only in the in the history of the republic, but in the historical and political memory of the state's imperial history. Here Fatma Müge Göçek draws on Turkey's Ottoman heritage and history to explore current issues of ethnicity and religion alongside Turkey's international position. This new perspective on history's influence on contemporary tensions in Turkey will contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding Turkey's accession to the EU, and offers insight into the social transformations in the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Nation-State. This analysis will be vital to those involved in the study of the Middle East Imperial History and Turkey's relations with the West.

Author Biography

Fatma Müge Göçek is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Programme in Women's Studies, University of Michigan. She is the co-editor of A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire (2010) and editor of Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East (2002).

Table of Contents

'This book by Fatma Müge Göçek is exceptional. By framing the historical material on Turkey with sociological insights, she makes a very rare contribution to Turkish history. As she brilliantly merges the outcome of the two fields of inquiry, she recreates Turkey's past while questioning some of the most delicate and controversial issues that define Turkey's present. This striking book thus opens new ways of understanding of history, sociology and modernity on the one side and Turkey's chaotic past and present on the other. It is a must for all scholars and students working on Turkey as well as those engaged in the comparative analysis of history and modernity.' – Hasan Bulent Kahraman, Associate Professor, Sabanci University, Istanbul'The rapid and deep changes that are currently affecting Turkey are in this work dissected by a keen observer of her country's past and present. Fatma Müge Göçek deploys her profound knowledge of the imperial past to explain the 'neo-Ottomanist' developments that have been opening up Turkish society and challenging the nationalist 'deep state'. As historian and sociologist, Göçek unravels the connections between the Ottoman reforms of the nineteenth century, the massive state violence against non-Turks, and the creation of a secular state, remarkably insecure and defensive, and a predominantly Muslim nation, increasingly self-confident. As Turkey shoulders its way onto the international stage, this book is the place to discover what lies behind today's headlines.' – Ronald Grigor Suny, Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History and Director of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History, The University of Chicago