The book is a quick read, it's like a series of blog posts. It's the book that will get you closest to what our lives look like in Ankara. Trust us, you'll enjoy it even if you never plan on visiting here.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Book Review: The Yogurt Man Cometh by Kevin Revolinski
Some friends of ours lent us a copy of The Yogurt Man Cometh: Tales of an American Teacher in Turkey as it's a humorous read about an American's crash course in living in Ankara and teaching at the same school where Justin teaches. We highly recommend the book to anyone living in Ankara or coming here for the first time.
Ankara was Revolinski's first real foray outside the U.S., he has since become a travel blogger. He captures the hilly slopes, the perils of public transit, and the difficulties of trying to teach English to private school students very well. Kevin was able to make friends quickly and accomplished a lot of sightseeing in Turkey in just a year's time, despite getting seriously ill in the process. The experience takes place in 1997-1998 and it's interesting to see how much the city has grown and changed even in just 15 years.
The book is a quick read, it's like a series of blog posts. It's the book that will get you closest to what our lives look like in Ankara. Trust us, you'll enjoy it even if you never plan on visiting here.
The book is a quick read, it's like a series of blog posts. It's the book that will get you closest to what our lives look like in Ankara. Trust us, you'll enjoy it even if you never plan on visiting here.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Some Books About Turkey
Turkey lacks no number of books written about it in English, but I wanted to post about two that I've read recently for those interested in the country.
Turkey: Federal Research Study and Country Profile (Kindle)
This first book was written by researchers at the Library of Congress and reads like a comprehensive (400 page) encyclopedia entry about Turkey. While boring, it's the most comprehensive non-partisan book about Turkey probably ever written. Looking at the history, geography, economy, politics, and military of Turkey going back centuries. The history overview was fascinating and helpful for me, particularly the changes made after the 1981 coup. If you want to know more details about Turkey than anyone else, read this book. The book only goes through the mid-1990s however, so you miss the remarkable decade to follow.
But the second book can help fill that gap:
Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future tells the story of parallel struggles for democracy in both Turkey and Iran. Kinzer is the author of The Crescent and the Star which is usually a recommended read about Turkey (here's my brief review).
Most Americans don't know that private American citizens were active in joining pro-democracy militias and fighting the Shah's armies in Iran in the late 1800s, for which there are monuments paying tribute to them still standing in Iran today. (The irony of this is that of course that after WWII, the CIA later worked to undermine Iranian democracy and support the Shah.)
Turkey's struggle toward basic human rights and democracy also began in the late 1800s as reforms began to be pushed on the last of the Ottoman Sultans. After the Ottoman Empire's disastrous defeat in World War I, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk helped lead the military struggle for independence as well as the political battles for democracy and modernization.
Kinzer compares Atatürk with his Iranian counterpart, Reza Shah Phalavi. Atatürk's strong hand and personality cult helped quickly bring some European-style modernity to Turkey whereas Reza Shah was only able to implement a few of the goals of the Constitutional Revolution. Kinzer chronicles Reza Shah's visit to Turkey where Atatürk takes him on a tour of the country, including a visit to a nude belly dancing exhibition--an activity both rulers apparently wanted full appreciation of in their respective countries as an example of secularism.
Kinzer's book portray's Atatürk's life in some detail, particularly focusing on his devotion to secularism and disapproval of religion. Iran's 20th century struggles are also detailed. While Atatürk is still revered (the summer weather here reveals all the Atatürk signature tatoos on women's arms), Reza Shah was deposed and replaced by his son, whose brutal reign was famously ended in 1979.
He offers an overview of Turkey's changes under Recep Tayip Erdoğan and the remarkable economıc growth since the 1990s. Kinzer also details America's relationship with these two countries and offers recommendations for the Obama administration. (Some of these recommendations and other tangents in the book I've chronicled in a separate review here.) About 1/3 of this book is fascinating history about Turkey that Kinzer didn't chronicle in Crescent and the Star, so I recommend it.
Turkey: Federal Research Study and Country Profile (Kindle)
This first book was written by researchers at the Library of Congress and reads like a comprehensive (400 page) encyclopedia entry about Turkey. While boring, it's the most comprehensive non-partisan book about Turkey probably ever written. Looking at the history, geography, economy, politics, and military of Turkey going back centuries. The history overview was fascinating and helpful for me, particularly the changes made after the 1981 coup. If you want to know more details about Turkey than anyone else, read this book. The book only goes through the mid-1990s however, so you miss the remarkable decade to follow.
But the second book can help fill that gap:
Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future tells the story of parallel struggles for democracy in both Turkey and Iran. Kinzer is the author of The Crescent and the Star which is usually a recommended read about Turkey (here's my brief review).
Most Americans don't know that private American citizens were active in joining pro-democracy militias and fighting the Shah's armies in Iran in the late 1800s, for which there are monuments paying tribute to them still standing in Iran today. (The irony of this is that of course that after WWII, the CIA later worked to undermine Iranian democracy and support the Shah.)
Turkey's struggle toward basic human rights and democracy also began in the late 1800s as reforms began to be pushed on the last of the Ottoman Sultans. After the Ottoman Empire's disastrous defeat in World War I, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk helped lead the military struggle for independence as well as the political battles for democracy and modernization.
Kinzer compares Atatürk with his Iranian counterpart, Reza Shah Phalavi. Atatürk's strong hand and personality cult helped quickly bring some European-style modernity to Turkey whereas Reza Shah was only able to implement a few of the goals of the Constitutional Revolution. Kinzer chronicles Reza Shah's visit to Turkey where Atatürk takes him on a tour of the country, including a visit to a nude belly dancing exhibition--an activity both rulers apparently wanted full appreciation of in their respective countries as an example of secularism.
Kinzer's book portray's Atatürk's life in some detail, particularly focusing on his devotion to secularism and disapproval of religion. Iran's 20th century struggles are also detailed. While Atatürk is still revered (the summer weather here reveals all the Atatürk signature tatoos on women's arms), Reza Shah was deposed and replaced by his son, whose brutal reign was famously ended in 1979.
He offers an overview of Turkey's changes under Recep Tayip Erdoğan and the remarkable economıc growth since the 1990s. Kinzer also details America's relationship with these two countries and offers recommendations for the Obama administration. (Some of these recommendations and other tangents in the book I've chronicled in a separate review here.) About 1/3 of this book is fascinating history about Turkey that Kinzer didn't chronicle in Crescent and the Star, so I recommend it.
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