In the Shadow of War and Empire

Reviews / Votes

"Goerkem Akgoez' In the Shadow of War and Empire traces the history of the Bakirkoey Cloth Factory in Istanbul from the mid-nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries from its origin as private enterprise during the late Ottoman Empire to a state-owned industry of the new Turkish republic. This impeccably researched book tells the story of industrialization in two finely balanced ways: as a highly textured microhistory of the lives of this single factory's workers and as a broader commentary on the processes of building a state and its political economy. Akgoez weaves these two perspectives together in a clear and compelling text. By commending In the Shadow of War and Empire, the Hagley Prize recognizes the global history of business from a new vantage point, both in the sense of the geography fanning out from Turkey, and fittingly for this year's conference theme, and in terms of the working-class actors at the heart of this history." - Hagley Prize in Business History



"Goerkem Akgoez has written an important and original book. Not only is the subject new, so is the methodology used. She explores new paths and she does so convincingly. In the Shadow of War and Empire is undoubtedly a landmark in the social historiography of the Global South." - Professor Marcel van der Linden, Institute of Social History, Amsterdam



"Goerkem Akgoez has produced a study that will be of interest far beyond the ranks of historians of Turkey - those interested in labour, gender, state formation, citizenship, and ideology will find much of value here. Deeply researched, beautifully written, and insightful at virtually every turn, this is a book destined to become a classic." - Professor Rick Halpern, University of Toronto



"Goerkem Akgoez takes Turkish and global labour history an important step further by successfully connecting a macro perspective of the long-term history of state building and industrialization to an inclusive microhistory of all the workers involved. Truly a tour de force." - Aad Blok, Executive Editor of the International Review of Social History



"Akgoez's work offers a comprehensive critique of studies on both the Ottoman Empire and the Republican period. In this respect, the author takes a different approach to the industrialisation adventure of the Ottoman period, revealing the efforts and consciousness of the Ottoman administration and bureaucratic staff. In terms of the Republican period, Akgoez approaches industrialisation efforts more deeply, contrary to general enthusiasm. (...) Readers will also gain a new methodological perspective on the use of different sources to understand organisational dynamics." - Enes Kurt, Independent Scholar; in: Business History



"In the Shadow of War and Empire makes several important contributions to the study of business and management history. First, it highlights the importance of the working class in nation-building and exposes the use of patriotic worker discourses in legitimizing Taylorist practices implemented to increase production. (...) The second contribution the book makes is to challenge the widely held belief about workforce turnover. (...) Lastly, the author emphasizes the subtle differences between Turkey's rationalization and its Taylorist forebear." - Akansel Yalcinkaya; in: Turkish Historical Review 15.2 (2024), pp. 215-219.



"The book is especially commendable for the variety of scales it utilizes, oscillating between the global, the national, the regional, the micro - that is the factory floor - and within that, the body of the individual worker. (...) The book is also insightful about how the factory site is crucial to the reproduction of urban space, in Istanbul and beyond. Urban historians, not only of Turkey but of the Global South would find in this book fruitful areas of intersection between the histories of labour and the urban." - K. Mehmet Kentel; in: Urban History 52.1 (2025), pp. 221-222.