What do you think?
Rate this book
The Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey
Winner of a 2014 Distinguished Book Award from The Society of Military History and Shortlisted for the 2014 Longman-History Today Book Prize
Mustafa Kemal – latterly and better known as Atatürk - is without doubt the most famous figure in modern Turkish history. But what was his path to power? And how did his early career as a soldier in the Ottoman army affect his later decisions as President?
The Young Atatürk tracks the lesser covered period of Kemal’s life – from the War of Independence to the founding of the Republic. George W. Gawrych shows that it is only by understanding Kemal’s military career that one can fully comprehend how he evolved as one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary statesmen. Gawrych also contributes to the understanding of Kemal by presenting a systematic and critical analysis of his military writings, orders, actions, and letters as well as his political decisions, speeches, proclamations, and private correspondences.
Soldiering helped shape Kemal’s critical reasoning, personal values and emotional intelligence. His experiences as an officer and commander forced him to adjust theories to practices in order to solve problems and make decisions. But Kemal was a natural political leader and his broad intellectual interests and personal studies helped prepare him for political leadership. Gawrych demonstrates that in the last year of the War of Independence Kemal excelled as both Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
Gawrych incorporates previously-unstudied Ottoman archival documents and is the first Western scholar to conduct extensive research on Kemal in the military archives of the Turkish General Staff. This book is essential reading for those seeking to understand the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and the part that Kemal played in that process.
Mustafa Kemal – latterly and better known as Atatürk - is without doubt the most famous figure in modern Turkish history. But what was his path to power? And how did his early career as a soldier in the Ottoman army affect his later decisions as President?
The Young Atatürk tracks the lesser covered period of Kemal’s life – from the War of Independence to the founding of the Republic. George W. Gawrych shows that it is only by understanding Kemal’s military career that one can fully comprehend how he evolved as one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary statesmen. Gawrych also contributes to the understanding of Kemal by presenting a systematic and critical analysis of his military writings, orders, actions, and letters as well as his political decisions, speeches, proclamations, and private correspondences.
Soldiering helped shape Kemal’s critical reasoning, personal values and emotional intelligence. His experiences as an officer and commander forced him to adjust theories to practices in order to solve problems and make decisions. But Kemal was a natural political leader and his broad intellectual interests and personal studies helped prepare him for political leadership. Gawrych demonstrates that in the last year of the War of Independence Kemal excelled as both Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
Gawrych incorporates previously-unstudied Ottoman archival documents and is the first Western scholar to conduct extensive research on Kemal in the military archives of the Turkish General Staff. This book is essential reading for those seeking to understand the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and the part that Kemal played in that process.
267 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 30, 2016
Considering that most studies of Ataturk's career seem to, proportionally at least, blow past his military career post-Gallipolli and pre 1922, this is a welcome addition to the source material. In addition, it is well researched and thoroughly cited and this work is then sewn together with an excellent analysis of how the self-taught scholarship in philosophy and political theory of the man was related to both his political and military leadership style.
September 5, 2017
A concise and well-researched account on the early years of Atatürk. As a military historian, the author gives very interesting insights on Atatürk's military campaigns. He successfully explains Atatürk's political and military strategies during the War of Independence. Worth read.
April 30, 2022
Whereas the book provides some ideological concepts regarding dictatorship and democracy, the author profoundly misrepresents the history and the genocidal policy of Young Turks and Abdulhamid towards the nations that lived in the country (and were a majority). The author conceals the actual mechanisms how the Turkish state built its modern identity and what the cost of that was.
The book totally lacks the perspective that it could provide to improve the Turkey of 21st century on the way of making it democratic and putting human rights in the core.
The book totally lacks the perspective that it could provide to improve the Turkey of 21st century on the way of making it democratic and putting human rights in the core.
Read
November 26, 2015Nothing!
February 28, 2016
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk'ün askerlik yönünü daha iyi anlamak için okunması gereken bir eser.
Daha fazlası için;
http://goo.gl/ncyJKe
Daha fazlası için;
http://goo.gl/ncyJKe
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews