Competing Ideologies in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic

The second constitutional period of the Ottoman Empire and the early decades of the Turkish republic were a hotbed of new and competing ideas which were to dramatically shape the development of the modern nation that followed. This book includes translations of and introductions to some of the key Turkish writers of the age, including Namik Kemal, Ziya Goekalp, Abdullah Cevdet and Ahmed Riza. The writings of these Turkist, Westernist and Islamist Ottoman and early republican thinkers are presented with contextualizing introductions which allow readers to access the primary texts which show the Turkish intellectual milieu out of which Mustafa Kemal's ideas were to emerge and ultimately dominate and will be of interest to students and scholars of Ottoman and Turkish History.

Review: This reader is the work of a selfless and dedicated scholar whose volume provides us with a rich set of texts, translations and discussions of the myriad of voices that were present at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Each vying for a different intellectual and political position, these Ottoman thinkers gave speeches, wrote volumes and engaged in the unique transformation of the empire. Ahmet Seyhun has produced a remarkable volume that we will all consult for years to come for its invaluable contributions to the field of Ottoman intellectual history. -- Karen Barkey, Haas Distinguished Chair of Religious Diversity and Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, USA