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Turkey: A Modern History, by Erik J. Zurcher. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1993. Distrib. by St. Martin's Press, New York. xiii + 322 pages. Maps to p. 325. Bibl. to p. 343. Biogs. to p. 371. Index to p. 381. $49.95.
Erik J. Zurcher has written a comprehensive and very readable history of modem Turkey. Although conceived as a textbook that "in no way has any pretensions of being an original piece of research" (p. 7). it coherently draws together an immense amount of material and skillfully integrates contrasting approaches to the study of the late Ottoman and modern Turkish history. One of the principal merits of the book is that it addresses several different audiences. Due to the author's ability to cut across different disciplines, the study is likely to be of interest to historians, economists, and political scientists alike. At the same time, the authoritative treatment of the last two hundred years of Turkish history will be a valuable resource for students and the general public.
The book is divided into three parts that follow the author's periodization of the history of modern Turkey. Part I covers the period from the end of the eighteenth century to the Young Turks' ascendancy to power in 1908. Zurcher's focus on the growing economic, cultural, and diplomatic interaction between Europe and the Ottoman Empire is informed by an eclectic approach that takes into account both the increasing incorporation of the Ottoman Empire into the world economy and the impact of European ideas, institutions, and practices on Ottoman reforms and Westernization efforts. By not wholly subscribing to either the "dependency" or "modernization" theories, but making judicious use of each, Zurcher provides a balanced analysis of the dynamics of change that ultimately transformed the political map of the Middle East and...