Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey [Hardcover]

A. Holly Shissler (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 186064855X | ISBN-13: 978-1860648557 | Publication Date: February 8, 2003

World-shaking revolutions in Russia in 1905 and 1917, in Ottoman Turkey in 1908, World War I, the defeat of the Central Powers and triumph of the Entente, the Turkish War of Independence and the establishment of the new Turkish nation state under Atatürk, and the establishment of Azerbaijan: These events form the backdrop to Ahmet Agaoglu’s life, which spanned the momentous period from 1869-1939. This intellectual biography of this major player is a striking entry point through which these turbulent times are brought sharply into relief.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... a very interesting book ... It manages to place the life story of Ahmet Agaoglu in the Imperial twilight of the Russians and Ottomans ... The attempt to trace the intellectual influences Agaoglu underwent ... in the Caucasus and then in St. Petersburg and Paris is particularly successful." -- Erik J Zürcher, University of Leiden

"Shissler ... is a brilliant thinker and scholar ... her scholarly and analytic abilities are the very highest ... her book ... I am sure will be very well received." -- Nikki Keddie, UCLA

About the Author

A. Holly Shissler is Assistant Professor, Center of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris (February 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 186064855X
• ISBN-13: 978-1860648557
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,952,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars An important scholarly contribution, April 18, 2006

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tarihci202 "tarihci202" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey (Hardcover)

Ahmet Agaoglu, a native of Azerbaijan, who would play an important role in the development of modern Turkish nationalism, is the subject of this tightly focused intellectual biography. For students of the Caucasus at the end of the Russian Empire or of the development of Turkish nationalism, Holly Shissler's carefully researched work holds a wealth of important information and insights.

Yet Shissler's contribution goes far beyond this in two ways. First, her introductory chapter offers one of the best historiographical overviews of trends within the study of Turkish nationalism that I have seen. Second her work acts as a corrective to the tendency in the study of nationalism to concentrate on the formulation of identity which actually wins out in the end. Through her careful tracing of Agaoglu's intellectual development, she shows how fluid national identities were in this period, and how subject to changing political realities.

For students of the late Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalism, and the late Caucasus, this is an important contribution. Given the care with which it has been written, it is likely to remain an important work within the field for decades to come.