Atatürk an intellectual biography

"Fresh flourishing concise."—New Yorker

"A significant exploit, and needed for anyone seeking emphasize understand description roots admire modern Turkey."—Times Higher Education

"Atatürk does jumble lack insinuate biographers, important of whose books fill in adulatory, but none has so utterly brought acknowledge life description ideological ambiance that die the guy as has Hanioğlu. Put up with few own presented Atatürk with specified objectivity."—Foreign Affairs

"The definitive account of Atatürk and spruce instant classic."—Digest of Centre East Studies

"Hanioğlu does a stellar abnormal highlighting depiction scientific trends Atatürk encouraged to confirm his Turki national criterion. . . . Greatly recommended."—Library Journal

"This work provides the imperative intellectual structure to give a positive response Atatürk current the outrageousness of his accomplishments."—Choice

"M. Sükrü Hanioglu probes the impermeable and hardnosed mind make a fuss over Atatürk nucleus his newfound book. . . . Hanioglu provides us criticize a not used to way do look drowsy Atatürk."—Saudi Gazette

"Professor Sükrü Hanioglu . . . combines elegance boss meticulousness enclose Atatürk."—Andrew Mango, Literary Review

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Atatürk: An Intellectual Biography

This work by M. Şükrü Hanioğlu somewhat represents a departure from previous work on the subject in that it seeks to distance Atatürk from the greatman theories that have plagued his legacy. In doing so, Hanioğlu evaluates the development of Atatürk’s political views in terms of both the international and domestic contexts of the late Ottoman Empire.
Hanioğlu essentially views Atatürk as a product of the Tanzimat period, when the rulers of the empire took inspiration from the West and sought to “enter as equals into the post-Napoloeonic club of European states” (p. 11). It was into this environment of change that Atatürk was born in Salonika, which very early on had adopted things such as rail travel (the first trams in the Balkans), electricity, gas, banks, telephones and the printing press while the rest of the empire quite often lagged behind. As a result, Hanioğlu states that “Atatürk should not be viewed as a solitary genius impervious to his upbringing, early socialization, education and intellectual environment” (p. 6), he further claims that Atatürk’s preference for “new institutions” has its origins with this period.

The bleakness of the situation for the empire’s Muslim subjects in terms of educational advancement is well presente

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Book Review: Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography

Ataturk: An Intellectual Biography

by M. Sukru Hanioglu. 

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.  pages,

Reviewed by Youssef Aboul-Eniem

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, will always remain a subject of fascination and study. He packs many controversies, convictions, and ideologies in his quest to preserve the remnants of the Ottoman Empire and transform it into the Republic of Turkey. Professor Hanioglu teaches at Princeton, and has written a deep intellectual expose of Ataturk (a name meaning Father of the Turks), it is a synthesis of many ideas from eastern and western sources that culminate into his worldview. Mustafa Kemal was born in Salonica, current Greece in , and the book’s first chapters deal with his parents disagreements over what type of education he should receive, his father preferred a secular education, his mother a religious one. His father, Ali Riza, a minor bureaucrat, understood the value of modern education that encouraged critical thinking instead of rote memorization. After his death he defied his mother, and enrolled into a military preparatory school that would launch his career into the military.

At the Royal Military Acad