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From the Ottoman Empire to today’s authoritarian regime—discover the story of a nation caught between Islamic traditions and pressures to westernize
Through more than nine centuries of shifting borders, environmental change, and political evolution, Turkey has been a cultural melting pot and a nation-state bent on ethnic unity. It has seen conquest and reform, appeals to tradition and calls to modernize. It has been a home to Christians, Jews, Muslims, and more, and it has aggressively pursued both secularization and Islamization.
Built on the foundations of the Ottoman Empire—the most enduring, and perhaps the most important, Islamic empire in history—Turkey’s long, complex history is beset by political and religious turmoil. But the country’s national story also illuminates a rich culture developed over thousands of years, reflecting culinary diversity, artisan craftsmanship, and architectural achievement.
In this concise yet nuanced overview, historian Benjamin Fortna examines Turkey’s complex trajectory from ancient Byzantine civilization to modern republic, through to the present-day leadership by the populist, authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In just 250 pages, Fortna reveals how opposing visions of Turkey have shaped its national identity and its people—and its place in contemporary history.
The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.
“[An] astute combination of the entertaining and informed. . . . What comes across most significantly is what a multicultural melting pot Turkey has been and still is.”—The Age
“Historian Benjamin C. Fortna delivers a compact yet richly informative account of a nation straddling East and West, tradition and modernity. This book achieves an impressive feat: distilling over two millennia of Turkish history into a narrative that is accessible, nuanced and deeply engaging.”—Good Reading Magazine
“To distill the history of a six-century transcontinental empire and its century-old principal successor into a narrative that is at once coherent, nuanced, and richly detailed without sacrificing readability is a formidable undertaking. In The Shortest History of Turkey, Benjamin C. Fortna rises to this challenge by tracing the arc of the story from the empire's foundation myths to current-day Turkey. Eschewing teleological interpretations, he attends not only to the actions of statesmen and institutions but also, insofar as a work of such breadth permits, to the experiences and agency of ordinary people. The result is a work that is both illuminating for the lay reader and indispensable for specialists concerned with particular moments within this long and intricate history.”—M. Sükrü Hanioglu, Princeton University
“A marvelous book, fast-moving and thought-provoking. Fortna shows great skill in choosing concise sketches and the unfamiliar details to capture essential qualities of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic often overlooked in other, lengthier accounts. A remarkable achievement.”—Frederick Anscombe, Birkbeck, University of London
