Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey sixty years ago, dedicated himself to westernizing the Turkish state and its society and culture. In this first attempt to evaluate Ataturk's overall contribution to the modernization of Turkey, an international group of scholars examine a broad range of subjects, including the Kemalist
In the first two decades after W.W.II, social scientist heralded Turkey as an exemplar of a 'modernizing' nation in the Western mold. Images of unveiled women working next to clean-shaven men, healthy children in school uniforms, and downtown Ankara's modern architecture all proclaimed the country's success. Although Turkey's modernization began in the late Ottoman era, the establishment of the secular nation-state by Kemal Ataturk in 1923 marked the crystallization of an explicit, elite-driven 'project of modernity' that took its inspiration exclusively from the West. The essays in this book are the first attempt to examine the Turkish experiment with modernity from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, encompassing the fields of history, the social sciences, the humanities, architecture, and urban planning. As they examine both the Turkish project of modernity and its critics, the contributors offer a fresh, balanced understanding of dilemmas now facing not only Turkey but also many other parts of the Middle East and the world at large.
"This book . . . is the earliest comprehensive essay in the English language on the German imigris who, while taking refuge in Turkey after 1933, contributed to the modernization of its higher education, and to the implementation of research activities and social reforms."--Dr. Feza Gnergun, chair for History of Science, Istanbul University.
The papers in this volume were presented and discussed at an international symposium on Ataturk and the modernization of Turkey, which was held at Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in October 1981, to mark the century of Mustafa Kemalʹs birth. Scholars from six countries -- France, Great Britain, Israel, Turkey, the United States and West Germany -- examined and discussed Ataturkʹs lifework and achievements at the symposium, in an attempt to evaluate their significance for his own time as well as for post-Kemalist Turkey. It is our hope that this volume of proceedings will make a contribution to the understanding of the impact of Ataturk and his followers on Turkey in the twentieth century. -- Preface (p. ix.).
Early in his career, Hitler took inspiration from Mussolini—this fact is widely known. But an equally important role model for Hitler has been neglected: Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, who inspired Hitler to remake Germany along nationalist, secular, totalitarian, and ethnically exclusive lines. Stefan Ihrig tells this compelling story.
The authors trace the emergence of Ataturk and Reza Shah through the constitutional revolutions in Iran and the Ottoman Empire, which led to the introduction of European social models, the establishment of dictatorship and of secularist reforms. This produced in both Turkey and Iran highly authoritarian, nationalist, and quasi-westernised states, where the personality cult of the leader defined the politics of each country."
The grand narrative of "The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building" is that of the essential continuity of the late Ottoman Empire with the Republic of Turkey that was founded in 1923. Erik J. Zurcher shows that Kemal's 'ideological toolkit', which included positivism, militarism, nationalism and a state-centred world view, was shared by many other Young Turks. Authoritarian rule, a one-party state, a legal framework based on European principles, advanced European-style bureaucracy, financial administration, military and educational reforms and state-control of Islam, can all be found in the late Ottoman Empire, as can policies of demographic engineering. The book focuses on the attempts of the Young Turks to save their empire through forced modernization as well as on the attempts of their Kemalist successors to build a strong national state. The decade of almost continuous warfare, ethnic conflict and forced migration between 1911 and 1922 forms the background to these attempts and accordingly occupies a central position in this volume. This is a powerful history reflecting and contributing to the latest research from a leading historian of modern Turkey. It is essential for all readers interested in the history of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, and for an understanding of a key player in the politics of the Middle East and Europe.
