Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey

Turkey today-one of the world's fastest growing tourist destinations-defies easy categorization. Friends speak of the Turks as blunt yet hospitable, inhabiting a land rich in history and culture, a member of the E.U. and strategic ally to the United States. Detractors cite military coups and concerns about Islamic fundamentalism. Turkey Unveiled fills a notable gap in Western history regarding this extremely complex country. This newly updated edition covers the first decade of the twenty-first century and brings the book up to the present.

The authors, who speak fluent Turkish and have reported from Turkey for twenty years, provide a rich mosaic of contemporary Turkey and its formative past. The strengths and weaknesses of the Ottoman Empire; the Armenian tragedy; the Kurdish struggle for independence; and the controversial legacy of the brilliant but autocratic founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, are all here. They also provide portraits of new leaders who have broken taboos and ushered in new freedoms at a time when other forces attempt to pull Turkey back into the Middle Eastern vortex.