The making of modern Turkey (The Making of the Middle East series)

Turkey has the distinction of being the first modern, secular state in a predominantly Islamic Middle East. This is the result of the determination of succeeding generations of reformers to constantly remake their society so to withstand the challenge of an aggressive West. The 19th-century reformers hoped to do this by simply adopting western institutions. But their successors, the so-called Young Turks, realised that that was not enough and that the entire social structure would have to be transformed so that Turkey too could have classes like those of the advanced countries of Europe. Written at a time when the Turkish military has been playing a prominent poltical role, "The Making of Modern Turkey" puts this role in a perspective which challenges the conventional wisdom of a monolithic and unchanging army. After a chapter on "The Ottoman Legacy", the book covers the period since the revolution of 1908 examining the processes (political, social and economic) by which the new Turkey was formed. This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in politics, history and Middle Eastern studies.