Ataturk - Softcover

Andrew Mango

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719565928 ISBN 13: 9780719565922

Publisher: Hodder Hb, 2004

Synopsis

Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk was the founding father of the Turkish Republic. He transformed it from a battle-scarred ruin into a regional power and is still hailed as a hero today.

About this title

About the Author:

Andrew Mango was born in Istanbul. He complemented his knowledge of Turkish by studying Persian and Arabic at the School of Oriental Studies in London. From 1947 to 1986 he worked at the BBC, retiring as Head of South European and French Language Services. During his retirement he continued to study and write on Turkish affairs. He died in 2014.

From Publishers Weekly:

In 1923, reports Mango, a satirical magazine ran a cartoon showing the three faces of Turkey--the nation, the assembly and the government. All were identical: the features were those of Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), an army officer who had salvaged the core of defeated Turkey after the 1914-1918 war to create a secular republic. A decade later, still trying to structure an identity for what remained of the polyglot, ramshackle Ottoman Empire, he decreed--as virtual dictator of a nation now largely populated by Muslims--that inhabitants had to take surnames. For himself, he adopted Ataturk, literally Father Turk. Mango (a retired BBC expert on Turkey and author of three previous books on the country) gives this man, one of the least-known nation-builders of the last century, full treatment, from his earliest days to his ascension to power and his death, from cirrhosis at the age of 57. Few leaders have so modernized an ancient society, instituting radical changes in dress, religion, government, education--even the alphabet. Ataturk abolished the monarchy, divided WWI's victors bent on partitioning all of Turkey, defeated rapacious Greeks intent on expanding their expatriate communities in Asia and destroyed or co-opted his domestic rivals. That so much of his legacy survives is evidence of his success. Mango's admiration for Ataturk doesn't keep him from displaying the dictator's arrogance, ruthlessness and authoritarianism; his Turkish expertise enables him to flesh out Ataturk's complex life via sources he translated himself. Mango gives a rounded, finely detailed portrait of the man who created modern Turkey. B&w photos. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Hb
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0719565928
• ISBN 13: 9780719565922
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 688