Shedding light on one of the most complex and enigmatic statesmen of the modern era, M. In doing so, it frames him within the historical context of the turbulent age in which he lived, and explores the uneasy transition from the late Ottoman imperial order to the modern Turkish state through his life and ideas. This book provides the first in-depth look at the intellectual life of the Turkish Republic’s founder. The narrative is gripping.When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became the first president of Turkey in 1923, he set about transforming his country into a secular republic where nationalism sanctified by science-and by the personality cult Atatürk created around himself-would reign supreme as the new religion. “The best concise account I have ever seen of the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

“A superb biography.” - Dallas Morning News “Thanks to Andrew Mango’s new biography, the best in the English language, a man both demonized and idolized appears to us in three dimensions.” - The Washington Post a rounded, finely detailed portrait.” - Publishers Weekly Mango’s admiration for Ataturk doesn’t keep him from displaying the dictator’s arrogance, ruthlessness and authoritarianism his Turkish expertise enables him to flesh out Ataturk’s complex life via sources he translated himself . . . Few leaders have so modernized an ancient society, instituting radical changes in dress, religion, government, education-even the alphabet . . . “Mango gives this man, one of the least-known nation-builders of the last century, full treatment, from his earliest days to his ascension to power and his death, from cirrhosis at the age of 57.

“One of the world’s most respected specialists on Turkey.” - The New York Times This revealing portrait of Atatürk throws light on matters of great importance today-resurgent nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and the reality of democracy. He divided the Allies, defeated the last Sultan, and secured the territory of the Turkish national state, becoming the first president of the new republic in 1923, fast creating his own legend. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was virtually unknown until 1919, when he took the lead in thwarting the victorious Allies’ plan to partition the Turkish core of the Ottoman Empire. A “superlative exhaustively researched” biography of “one of the most complex and controversial figures in twentieth-century world history” ( Library Journal).

Atatürk by Andrew Mango