The Formation of Turkish Republicanism

Turkish republicanism is commonly thought to have originated with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the founding of modern Turkey in 1923, and understood exclusively in terms of Kemalist ideals, characterized by the principles of secularism, nationalism, statism, and populism. Banu Turnaoğlu challenges this view, showing how Turkish republicanism represents the outcome of centuries of intellectual dispute in Turkey over Islamic and liberal conceptions of republicanism, culminating in the victory of Kemalism in the republic's formative period.

Drawing on a wealth of rare archival material, Turnaoğlu presents the first complete history of republican thinking in Turkey from the birth of the Ottoman state to the founding of the modern republic. She shows how the Kemalists wrote Turkish history from their own perspective, presenting their own version of republicanism as inevitable while disregarding the contributions of competing visions. Turnaoğlu demonstrates how republicanism has roots outside the Western political experience, broadening our understanding of intellectual history. She reveals how the current crises in Turkish politics—including the Kurdish Question, democratic instability, the rise of radical Islam, and right-wing Turkish nationalism—arise from intellectual tensions left unresolved by Kemalist ideology.

A breathtaking work of scholarship, The Formation of Turkish Republicanism offers a strikingly new narrative of the evolution and shaping of modern Turkey.

"Shortlisted for the 2018 Gladstone Prize, Royal Historical Society"

"One of CHOICE’s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2017"

"This is truly a work of depth, narrative power, and substantive importance. Turnaoğlu ably and deftly argues that approaching Turkish republicanism exclusively in Kemalist terms would be a serious mistake, showing instead how it represents the outcome of centuries of intellectual debates and discussions."—M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, author of Atatürk: An Intellectual Biography

"This boldly argued and beautifully written book offers the most comprehensive account of this topic available. Turnaoğlu is aware of her mission as both a scholar and public intellectual, and is not afraid to challenge popular ideologies and myths about history and global values in Europe as well as Turkey."—Cemil Aydin, author of The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought