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The Turks in World History, by Carter Vaughn Findley. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xvi + 237 pages. Notes to p. 261. Bibl to p. 285. Index to p. 300. $74 cloth; $19.95 paper.
In his latest book, Carter Vaughn Findley traces the history of the Turkic peoples from their origins on the Eurasian steppe to the modern era in which the Turkic world includes states in Central Asia, the Middle East, and a global diaspora. Arguing against the too-common view of a clash of essentialized civilizations, Findley presents the Turks as a group who successfully moved across civilizational boundaries, at the same time adapting to new conditions and maintaining their identity. Working chronologically, Findley first discusses the pre-Islamic Turks and their predecessors, and then addresses the transformations wrought by the Turks' encounters first with Islam and then with modernity.
The book is wide in scope, looking at the Turkic peoples across all of Eurasia from Anatolia to Xinjiang. This is a plus, as often discussions of Turkic history are dominated by coverage of the Ottoman Empire. Findley gives equal time to Turkic states and peoples in Central Asia as well. By placing his study of...