Turkey has leapt to international prominence as an economic and political powerhouse under its elected Muslim government, and is looked on by many as a model for other Muslim countries in the wake of the Arab Spring. This book reveals how Turkish national identity and the meanings of Islam and secularism have undergone radical changes in today's Turkey, and asks whether the Turkish model should be viewed as a success story or cautionary tale. Jenny White shows how Turkey's Muslim elites have mounted a powerful political and economic challenge to the country's secularists, developing an alternative definition of the nation based on a nostalgic revival of Turkey's Ottoman past. These Muslim nationalists have pushed aside the Republican ideal of a nation defined by purity of blood, language, and culture. They see no contradiction in pious Muslims running a secular state, and increasingly express their Muslim identity through participation in economic networks and a lifestyle of Islamic fashion and leisure. For many younger Turks, religious and national identities, like commodities, have become objects of choice and forms of personal expression.
This provocative book traces how Muslim nationalists blur the line between the secular and the Islamic, supporting globalization and political liberalism, yet remaining mired in authoritarianism, intolerance, and cultural norms hostile to minorities and women.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
One of ForeignAffairs.com's Best International Relations Books in the Best Books on the Middle East category for 2012 "[P]iercing and original analysis ..."--Economist "[A]deeply insightful book... [T]he writing is ... clear and straightforward, and the book is chock-full of rich tidbits from Turkish society... Filled with insight, Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks is sure to become a leading text for those looking to read the Turkish tea leaves ..."--David Lepeska, National "[T]his is a good book worth reading by those concerned with Turkey and broader issues of democratic transitions in the Muslim world."--Hurriyet Daily News "Even for those already familiar with contemporary Turkey, this sometimes disturbing book will be an eye opener"--.John Waterbury, Foreign Affairs "This anthropological work is grounded in a deep knowledge of Turkey, nourished by White's successive long stays and periods of fieldwork in the country; yet it is also a judicious compilation of key secondary sources."--Clemence Scalbert-Yucel, Times Higher Education "Jenny White has provided readers with insightful and nuanced access to the complexities of Turkish society and a first look at a newly emerging class of individualist Muslim nationalists."--Zeynep Kosereisoglu, Muftah "In this multilayered, theoretically sophisticated, and analytically rich examination of the contradictions and convergences found in contemporary expressions of 'Turkishness,' especially with respect to Muslim and secular forms of nationalisms, White offers an interpretation that reinforces Barth's emphasis on pluralism, choice, and negotiation, while also demonstrating greater understanding and synthesis of the constraints of gender, class, ethnicity, and religion."--Choice "It's a reviewer's job both to critique the book at hand and to detail and summarize its most salient points. It's a tribute to Boston University anthropologist Jenny White's excellent Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks that it makes the latter extremely difficult to do, simply by doing justice to the enormous complexity of Turkish society."--William Armstrong, Hurriyet Daily News "I would definitely recommend it to both Western scholars and Turks themselves. White's book is an extensive analysis of the Turkish nationality issue. In my opinion it is original that White also researched the female image of 'belonging to the Turkish nation', this is a view one seldom encounters. Inter alia therefore Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks is a valuable addition to other books already written on the subject of Turkish nationality."--Anouk Willemsen, International Review of Turkish Studies "This is a very readable book which aims at providing a better understanding of the role of nationalism in Turkey and of its paranoid and multiphobic nature, while also narrating the rise of a generation of pious young people who have taken over the reins of the secular state and found new ways of expressing their Muslim identity. One of the strengths of the book is its exploration of common themes, i.e. racist and patriarchal worldviews, that bridge various forms of nationalism in Turkey."--Laurent Mignon, Journal of Islamic Studies
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Für Beruf und Forschung
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-691-15517-3 (9780691155173)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Jenny White is associate professor of anthropology at Boston University. She is the author of Islamist Mobilization in Turkey and Money Makes Us Relatives: Women's Labor in Urban Turkey.
Illustrations xi Abbreviations xiii Acknowledgments xv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Islam and the Nation 24 Chapter 3 The Republic of Fear 54 Chapter 4 The Missionary and the Headscarf 80 Chapter 5 No Mixing 102 Chapter 6 Sex and the Nation: Veiled Identity 136 Chapter 7 Choice and Community: The Girl with Blue Hair 163 Chapter 8 Conclusion 181 Notes 197 References 217 Index 229
