| Publication |
2014.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Kemal Atatürk wanted to break with the past by providing his new nation with a new history that would give the Turks pride by showing that they were an ancient and civilized nation. The textbook produced under his personal supervision presented the Turks as central to the development of virtually all ancient civilizations. This became an official doctrine promulgated in historical congresses and many publications. It drew heavily on European writers, among them Gobineau and H.G. Wells. Although presented as a novel achievement, the new history had its roots in the recent Turkish past whose ideas were given a coherent form by Atatürk.
|