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Liked It “Excellent discussion of Modern Turkey's dilemmas and forces by NY times corespondent and prior resident.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It“In choosing this work, I hoped for an introductory history to modern Turkey. While Kinzer did a good job of explaining various cultural points, the book carries an unapologetic bias for Western ideals and professes a clear wish-list agenda for Turkey's future. While I appreciate that the author...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Excellent discussion of Modern Turkey's dilemmas and forces by NY times corespondent and prior resident.”
Donald F wrote this review 6 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“In choosing this work, I hoped for an introductory history to modern Turkey. While Kinzer did a good job of explaining various cultural points, the book carries an unapologetic bias for Western ideals and professes a clear wish-list agenda for Turkey's future. While I appreciate that the author made no secret of his political leanings, I cannot help but be skeptical of the history he chose to portray. I am not saying his politics are right/wrong, but I wanted to learn about Turkish society and history from a more impartial source. And as to his stance on the direction Turkey needs to take to become a "mature democracy," he offered no concrete suggestions, rather cookie cutter statements that do not fully appreciate the complexities of implementation. While he did not shy away from pointing out the obstacles to Turkey's Westernization, his solutions were sweeping statements that did not specifically address how the challenges could be overcome. However, this book did highlight many aspects of modern Turkey, from social customs to political bureaucracy. Its scope is actually rather impressive, for the size of the work. With that in mind, perhaps some of the generalizations can be forgiven. ”
Alisha wrote this review Wednesday, September 9 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A political history of Turkey, from Kemal Ataturk's secular reforms to the present. Analyzes the idea of whether a country/people are ready for democracy -- or whether there are too many people who would just vote themselves into a backward theocracy (their words, not mine!). A very good read for anyone interested in the topic -- whether Turkey or the Middle East in general. Very timely, in this day of "exporting" democracy to the Middle East!”
geekchick wrote this review Saturday, November 24 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Kinzer alternates between straightforward political and social journalism and personal observation. So far so good.”
sfifeadams wrote this review Friday, June 29 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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