Becoming Turkish: Nationalist Reforms and Cultural Negotiations in Early Republican Turkey 1923-1945

by Hale Yilmaz

Becoming Turkish deepens our understanding of the modernist nation-building processes in post—Ottoman Turkey through a rare perspective that stresses social and cultural dimensions and everyday negotiations of the Kemalist reforms. Yιlmaz asks how the reforms were mediated on the ground and how ordinary citizens received, reacted to, and experienced them. She traces the experiences of the subaltern as well as the experiences of the elites and the mediators in the overall narrative—highlighting the relevance of class, gender, location, and urban and rural differences while also revealing the importance of nonideological, social, and psychological factors such as childhood and generations.

Genres: History

328 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2013

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An issue by issue delve into how progressive nationalism works, examining changes to public dress, language, and holidays specifically. The major theme is how citizens reacted to and negotiated these changes in a time of massive political and philosophical ferment.