Turkey Book Talk

Ece Temelkuran on 'Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy'

Ece Temelkuran joins the pod to discuss her new book “Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy” (Zed Books), a vivid and personal account of the current state of the country. 

Support the Turkey Book Talk podcast by making a donation small or large via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Özlem Beyarslan, Steve Bryant, Andrew Cruickshank and Aaron Ataman.

Bilge Yeşil on the Turkish media past and present

Bilge Yeşil speaks about her book “Media in New Turkey: The Origins of an Authoritarian Neoliberal State” (University of Illinois Press), tracing problems in the Turkish media back to the 1980s. 

Support the Turkey Book Talk podcast by making a donation small or large via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Özlem Beyarslan, Steve Bryant, Andrew Cruickshank and Aaron Ataman.

Cem Emrence on 'remapping the Ottoman Middle East'

Cem Emrence on his book “Remapping the Ottoman Middle East: Modernity, Imperial Bureaucracy and Islam” (IB Tauris). The book looks at Ottoman modernization through the 19th and early 20th centuries using an original “three-trajectory” model: The coast, the interior, and the frontier.

If you like Turkey Book Talk and want to support independent podcasting, you can make a small or large monetary donation to the show via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Özlem Beyarslan, Steve Bryant and Andrew Cruickshank.

Maureen Freely on Sabahattin Ali and translating 'Madonna in a Fur Coat'

Maureen Freely joins to discuss the tragic life of author Sabahattin Ali and her translation of his classic 1943 novel “Madonna in a Fur Coat,” just published in a first ever English edition by Penguin.

Support the Turkey Book Talk podcast by making a donation small or large via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Özlem Beyarslan, Steve Bryant and Andrew Cruickshank.

Umut Uzer on the history of Turkish nationalism

Umut Uzer of Istanbul Technical University joins to discuss his new book "An Intellectual History of Turkish Nationalism: Between Turkish Ethnicity and Islamic Identity” (Utah University Press). The book explores just how potent nationalism remains in Turkey, where for a century it has run through political traditions across the spectrum.

Support the podcast by making a donation small or large via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Özlem Beyarslan, Steve Bryant and Andrew Cruickshank.

Shadi Hamid on 'Islamic exceptionalism,' Turkey and the Middle East

Brookings Institution senior fellow Shadi Hamid joins the pod to discuss his new book 'Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World' (St Martins), which argues that current troubles in the Middle East are tied to unresolved questions of how Islam relates to the state.

You can support the podcast with a per episode donation via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Özlem Beyarslan, Steve Bryant and Andrew Cruickshank.

Ryan Gingeras on the fall of the Ottoman sultanate

Ryan Gingeras returns to the podcast to discuss his new book "The Fall of the Sultanate: The Great War and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1922" (Oxford University Press).

Support the podcast via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporters Özlem Beyarslan, Steve Bryant and Andrew Cruickshank.

 

 

Cihan Tuğal on the fall of the 'Turkish model'

Cihan Tuğal, a sociologist at UC Berkeley, chats about "The Fall of the Turkish Model: How the Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Liberalism" (Verso), charting how Turkey went from a model "Muslim democracy" for the Middle East to an increasingly authoritarian state.

You can support the podcast via Patreon. Many thanks to current sponsors Sera Aleksandra Marshall and Andrew Cruickshank.

Judy Saryan on Zabel Yessayan and the 1909 massacres of Armenians in Adana

Editor Judith Saryan on a new edition of Zabel Yessayan's account of a trip to Adana in the aftermath of pogroms targeting Armenians there in 1909. "In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey" (AIWA) is the first full English edition of the book to be published. 

You can support the podcast via Patreon. Many thanks to current supporter Sera Aleksandra Marshall.

Mustafa Gürbüz on 'rival Kurdish movements'

Mustafa Gürbüz chats about his book “Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey: Transforming Ethnic Conflict” (Amsterdam University Press), on how internal dynamics are key to understanding Turkey's Kurdish question.

Şakir Dinçşahin on the life and times of Niyazi Berkes, 1908-1988

Şakir Dinçşahin discusses his book "State and Intellectuals in Turkey: The Life and Times of Niyazi Berkes, 1908-1988" (Rowman).

Frederike Geerdink on Turkey's Kurdish question

Frederike Geerdink on "The Boys are Dead: The Roboski Massacre and the Kurdish Question in Turkey" (Gomidas), discussing her time as a journalist in the Kurdish-majority city Diyarbakır and the troubled history/present of the issue.

Ryan Gingeras on 'Atatürk: Heir to an Empire'

Ryan Gingeras discusses his new biography of the Turkish Republic's founding father, "Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: Heir to an Empire" (Oxford University Press).

Kaya Genç talks Istanbul writing through the centuries

Novelist Kaya Genç talks about "An Istanbul Anthology" (AUC Press) a new selection of classic writing on Istanbul that he has edited.

Nilgün Önder on the economic transformation of Turkey since 1980

This week's podcast is with Nilgün Önder, author of "The Economic Transformation of Turkey: Neoliberalism and State Intervention." The book details some of the paradoxes of the economic reforms passed after the military coup of 1980, the effects of which continue to resonate in Turkey today.

Markus Dressler on the 'making of Turkish Alevi Islam

Markus Dressler on his book "Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam," which examines how the idea of Alevism is an almost entirely modern concept, formed since the 19th century as part of efforts to integrate disparate Anatolian religious groups into the Turkish and Muslim nation.

Cengiz Şişman on the Dönmes of Turkey

Cengiz Şişman discusses his new book on the little-known history of the Dönmes, a crypto-religious sect that first developed around professed messiah Sabbatai Sevi in cities around the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century.

Michael M. Gunter on the Kurds of Syria in peace and war

Michael Gunter on his book "Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War," which charts the Syrian Kurds’ rise to international prominence since 2011 from a “sleepy unimportant backwater in the Kurdish struggle.”

Ozan Özavcı on Ahmet Ağaoğlu on liberalism in Turkey

Ozan Özavcı discusses "Ahmet Ağaoğlu and the Genealogy of Liberalism in Turkey" (Brill), on one of the prominent intellectuals bridging the late Ottoman/early republican eras. Read a review at HDN.

Diana Darke on 'My House in Damascus'

Diana Darke, the author of “My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Revolution” (Haus), describes her experiences after buying a 17th century courtyard house in Damascus 10 years ago and her first-hand perspective of Syria’s descent into bloody civil war after 2011.