Andrew Mango (1926–2014)

A well-written and informative book. This biography is a requisite for english readers who wants to know more about modern Turkey. However, i could not give it a perfect 5 stars because I felt that the period during which Ataturk ruled Turkey as its first president ( a period spanning 15 years) was not discussed in detail, and was rushed towards the end of the book. With so many things happening in Turkey and the world during the interwar period, I wonder why the author consigned its discussion to a small portion of the book. Nevertheless, I still highly recommend the book, especially because it included excellent maps and pictures that made it even more interesting and easier to read.… (more)

I read this prior to visiting Istanbul and it did give me a good feel for the recent history and current geopolitical position of modern Turkey. The book is broadly divided into two parts - the first dealing with the history since the establishment of the republic and the second part looking at the nature of the country in very recent years.

The first part makes rather tough reading. The events immediately following WWI are not covered at all well and then the coverage of the following ~60 or so years of political history is a bit confusing. To be fair to the author, politics in Turkey has been very turbulent so this can be excused, although more coverage of the early 20s and the war of independence would have been helpful.

The second half is devoted to aspects of modern Turkey, including the role of religion, politics, regional & ethnic separatism, economics, Ankara as captial and Istanbul as the country's cultural heart. This was really interesting and exactly what I had purchased the book for.

Other reviewers have commented on the objectivity of some of the content - notably Kurdish issues and the treatment of Armenians. In my opinion, the book is written from a firmly nationalistic perspective and is not altogether unbiased, particularly concerning the Kurds. However, this is quite obvious and can therefore be taken account of by the reader. If it had better maps, I might have given this four stars.… (more)