Oral History and Public Memories


Book Description

Oral history is inherently about memory, and when oral history interviews are used "in public," they invariably both reflect and shape public memories of the past. Oral History and Public Memories is the only book that explores this relationship, in fourteen case studies of oral history's use in a variety of venues and media around the world. Readers will learn, for example, of oral history based efforts to reclaim community memory in post-apartheid Cape Town, South Africa; of the role of personal testimony in changing public understanding of Japanese American history in the American West; of oral history's value in mapping heritage sites important to Australia's Aboriginal population; and of the way an oral history project with homeless people in Cleveland, Ohio became a tool for popular education. Taken together, these original essays link the well established practice of oral history to the burgeoning field of memory studies.




The Young Turks in Opposition


Book Description

In 1908, the revolution of the Young Turks deposed the dictatorship of Sultan Abdulhamid II and established a constitutional regime that became the major ruling power in the Ottoman empire. But the seeds of this revolution went back much farther: to 1889, when the secret Young Turk organization the Committee of Union and Progress was formed. M. Sukru Hanioglu's landmark work is the story of the power struggles within the CUP and its impact on twentieth-century Turkish politics and culture. At once an in-depth history of an ideological movement and a study of the diplomatic relationships between the Ottoman Empire and the so-called great powers of Europe at the turn of the century, it analyzes the influence of European political thought on the CUP conspirators, and traces their influence on generations of Turkish intellectual and political life.




Turkish Language, Literature, and History


Book Description

The twenty two essays collected in Turkish Language, Literature and History offer insights into Turkish culture in the widest sense. Written by leaders in their fields from North America, Europe and Turkey, these essays cover a broad range of topics, focusing on various aspects of Turkish language, literature and history between the eighth century and the present. The chapters move between ancient and contemporary literature, exploring Sultan Selim’s interest in dream interpretation, translating newly uncovered poetry and exploring the works of Orhan Pamuk. Linguistic complexities of the Turkish language and dialects are analysed, while new translations of 16th century decrees offer insight into Ottoman justice and power. This is a festschrift volume published for the leading scholar Bob Dankoff, and the diverse topics covered in these essays reflect Dankoff’s valuable contributions to the study of Turkish language and literature. This cross-disciplinary book offers contributions from academics specialising in linguistics, history, literature and sociology, amongst others. As such, it is of key interest to scholars working in a variety of disciplines, with a focus on Turkish Studies.




Dove Va la Storia Economica?


Book Description




Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies


Book Description

The first to combine the study of representation, gender theory, and Muslim women from a historical and geographical perspective, this book examines where women have represented themselves in art, architecture, and the written word in the Muslim world. The authors explore the gendering and implicit power relations present in the positioning of subject and object in the visual field and look specifically at occasions when women publicly adopted the stance of the viewer, speaker, writer, or patron. Contributors include Ellison Banks Findly, Elizabeth Brown Frierson, Salah M. Hassan, Nancy Micklewright, Leslie Peirce, Kishwar Rizvi, D. Fairchild Ruggles, Yasser Tabbaa, Lucienne Thys-Senoçak, and Ethel Sara Wolper.




The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650


Book Description

This highly-praised and authoritative account surveys the history of the Ottoman Empire from its obscure origins in the 14th century, through its rise to world-power status in the 16th century, to the troubled times of the 17th century. Going beyond a simple narrative of Ottoman achievements and key events, Colin Imber uses original sources and research, as well as the rapidly growing body of modern scholarship on the subject, to show how the Sultans governed their realms and the limits on their authority. A helpful chronological introduction provides the context, while separate chapters deal with the inner politics of the dynasty, the court and central government, the provinces, the law courts and legal system, and the army and fleet. Revised, updated and expanded, this new edition now also features a separate chapter on the Arab provinces and incorporates the most recent developments in the field throughout. New to this Edition: - An increased focus on religion, and on non-Muslim communities - More on the provinces and culture - An expanded taxation chapter, with more on charitable trusts, trade and the economy - Updated references throughout




The Business of Transition


Book Description

The Business of Transition examines how the cosmopolitan bourgeoisie of the Eastern Mediterranean navigated the transition from empire to nation-state in the early twentieth century. In this social and cultural history, Paris Papamichos Chronakis shows how the Jewish and Greek merchants of Salonica (present-day Thessaloniki) skillfully managed the tumultuous shift from Ottoman to Greek rule amidst revolution and war, rising ethnic tensions, and heightened class conflict. Bringing their once powerful voices back into the historical narrative, he traces their entangled trajectories as businessmen, community members, and civic leaders to illustrate how the self-reinvention of a Jewish-led bourgeoisie made a city Greek. Papamichos Chronakis draws on previously untapped local archival material to weave a rich narrative of individual portraits, introducing us to revered philanthropists and committed patriots as well as vilified profiteers and victimized Salonicans. Offering a kaleidoscopic view of a city in transition, this book reveals how the collapse of empire shook all the constitutive elements of Jewish and Greek identities, and how Jews and Greeks reinvented themselves amidst these larger political and economic disruptions.




Historical Archives and the Historians' Commission to Investigate the Armenian Events of 1915


Book Description

Historical Archives and the Historians' Commission to Investigate the Armenian Events of 1915 demonstrates the vital importance of Ottoman and other relevant archives in Turkey for the study of the Armenian question. Historians, assisted by newly discovered or recently published materials, must continually reassess events of the past in order to achieve a rounder view. The Armenian events of 1915 are certainly no exception. This study encourages further engagement between the policy-making and the scholarly communities by indicating the continued importance of past records and documents for today’s pressing debates. In order to give a fuller picture, this survey also looks at some major relevant archival sources outside Turkey, including the state of archives of the First Republic of Armenia and those of the Dashnak Party. Yücel Güçlü’s inquiry sheds light on some of the British records relating to the First World War and its immediate aftermath locked at the National Archives in Kew, London, and he examines the special relevance of repositories in Moscow and St. Petersburg in understanding the Turkish-Armenian conflict. Güçlü assesses Turkey’s proposal to establish an international historians’ commission to investigate the Armenian events of 1915 and reviews in-depth the meanings and implications of the protocols of cooperation signed between Turkey and Armenia on 10 October 2009. By turning a modern eye on historical events, this study gives great and necessary attention to discovering the precise chronology, meaning, and development of the continuing negotiations between Turkey and Armenia.