"Is the Turk a White Man?"
Race and Modernity in the Making of Turkish Identity
Description
In 1909, US courts set out to decide whether a Turkish citizen shall be naturalized as a white person.” Turkish elites had already undertaken to portray the Turks as the historic source of Western civilization, white racial stock, and human language. Examining this interaction between global racial discourses and local responses, Ergin recentres Turkish modernization on imaginings of race.
Author Bios
Murat Ergin, Ph.D. (2005), University of Minnesota, is Associate Professor of Sociology at Koç University. His research interests include nationalism, race, ethnicity, cultural boundaries, and death.
More Info
ISBN: 9781608468386
Publication date: March 27, 2018
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: WHY THIS BOOK SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN
Race and the Turkish Case
Why Care About the Turkish Case?
The West = Theory; The Rest = “Mere” Case
Cases and National Boundaries
CHAPTER 2: THE REPUBLICAN CONVERSION NARRATIVE
Rewriting History
CHAPTER 3: ENCOUNTERS WITH THE “WEST”
Becoming White
The Ghosts of the Past: Ottoman Modernization and Encounters with the West
The Ottoman Interest in Race
Ziya Gökalp: The Official Ideologue of the Republic?
The Formation of the “Terrible Turk”: Western Perceptions
The Problem of Periodization
CHAPTER 4: RACE IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY
Racial Vocabularies
Mermaids, Fish, Humans: The Taxonomic Discourse
Biometric Mobilization to Protect and Improve the Race
Anthropometric Mobilization to “Discover” the Turkish Race
CHAPTER 5: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS AND RACIAL DISCOURSES
Intellectual Exchange and Historical Contingency
The University Reform and Émigré Scholars
Conflicting Loyalties: Expertise in the Service of Local and Universal Agendas
Afet Inan and Eugène Pittard: Personal Interaction in Search of Anthropometric Essences
CHAPTER 6: RACE IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY
Race, and Ethnicity, and Nation
Race in Contemporary Turkey
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
