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A massive effort, but well worth the read. Mustafa Kemal made a titanic effort to drag Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire into a modern European Nation state. While currently Turkey appears to be flagging in this effort, Kinross details the effort of the first of Turkey's two generations of efforts to gain this goal. Along with Shaka of the Zulu's this Turkish soldier was a man who truly tried to recast his country in the space of a single generation. It is a book filled with insights for those interested in the problems of the second and third worlds even now. ( )

Lord Kinross's style of relating history was excellent, albeit from very much a 'British Empire' point of view. Despite that perspective, the biography portrays a sympathetic sketch of a Young Turk rising through the military to lead his country. I recommend the book as eminently readable and astonishingly relevant in today's Near Eastern situation as Turkey teeters on the brink of regressing to an Ottoman-like empire, ruled without concern for its citizens' rights. Even though Istanbul is a sophisticated city straddling the Bosphorus, I had very little perception of how the rest of the country was operated. The author brings much of that aspect to life. This biography was my introduction to Kinross's writing and has certainly directed my attention to some of his other historical works. ( )

Turkey is a country that is neither here nor there. Geographically it belongs to both Europe and Asia. Historically it is an empire that straddles both Middle East and European history. Theologically it is Islamic but it is also a secular state. It is a democracy but is unlike most western democracies. Ethnically its people are more like the people of the central steppes of Russia than they are the Semitic peoples of the Middle East. Historically there is a large Christian population located within the Turkish borders, and the country was forced to make some great changes due to the great misfortune of being on the losing side in World War I. Even so Turkey has more often than not turned towards Europe and the other Western countries for inspiration and today is trying to gain a spot in the EU. Because Turkey is one of the great conundrums of Europe thought I needed to know more about the formation of modern Turkey and the man who founded it.

The book was published back in 1965 and for being so old it was a surprisingly good read. Kemal was a fascinating man who dragged his country into the modern age kicking and screaming. In the end he may have failed as he acted more and more like a potentate himself than he did a democratic leader. However, for the last 70 years Turkey has had one of the few semi democratic governments found in an Islamic country so he did not complete fail. This is a must read for anybody interested in the modern Middle East and how it got to be the way it is. ( )