The Young Turks: The History and Legacy of the Political Movement that Attempted to Reform the Ottoman Empire Before Its Collapse
Written by Charles River Editors
Narrated by Colin Fluxman
4/5
()
About this audiobook
In August 2017, Turkey’s President Recip Tayyip Erdogan gave a directive to the Foreign Ministry to go into ravaged Syria and rescue an 87-year-old Turkish man stranded in Damascus by the civil war. The elderly gentleman lived his life simply and quietly. He disliked drawing attention to himself, and he was grieving for his wife who had just died. The man called himself Dundar Abdulkerim Osmanoglu, but many affixed the title Sehzade (“Prince”) to his name, for he was Head of the imperial House of Osman and heir to the defunct throne of the Ottoman Empire. His ancestors had created an Empire that had lasted for over 600 years and caused the greatest rulers of both the Muslim East and the Christian West to tremble.
When studying the fall of the Ottoman Empire, historians have argued over the breaking point that saw a leading global power slowly become a decadent empire, but to men like Erdogan, the long agony of the “sick man of Europe,” an expression used by the Tsar of Russia to depict the falling Ottoman Empire, blinds people to its incredible power and history. Overall, the history of the dissolution of the empire can be defined as a race between the empire’s growing “illness” on one side (the Ottomans’ inability to appease and federate the various people within its territory) and constant attempts to find a cure in the form of broad reforms. As this all suggests, the story of the Young Turks and the last years of the Ottoman Sultanate is a complex and interesting one. It is the history of a state struggling to survive against seemingly impossible odds, featuring a long battle for the minds and souls of the inhabitants of a declining empire between nationalism and liberal imperialism. It is a struggle that has produced not only modern Turkey but several states in the Balkans and the Middle East as they exist today. The Young Turks were triumphant, but in many ways it was a Pyrrhic victory.
More audiobooks from Charles River Editors
The East India Company: The History of the British Empire's Most Famous Mercantile Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ur: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Sumerian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gnosticism: The History and Legacy of the Mysterious Ancient Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mysteries of the South: Ghosts, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in Dixie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Life and Legacy of the Father of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nineveh: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Assyrian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legends of the West: Deadwood, South Dakota Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky: The Lives and Legacies of the Gangsters Who Reformed Organized Crime in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America's Most Famous Murder Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Midwest: Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in America's Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung: The Pioneering Lives and Works of History’s Most Influential Psychologists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denisovans: The History of the Extinct Archaic Humans Who Spread Across Asia during the Paleolithic Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle of Hamburger Hill: The History and Legacy of One of the Vietnam War's Most Controversial Battles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ancient and Medieval Conspiracy Theories: The History of the World’s Most Persistent Conspiracy Theories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Young Turks
Related audiobooks
The Mamluks: The History and Legacy of the Medieval Slave Soldiers Who Established a Dynasty in Egypt Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Concise History of Turkey: The History and Legacy of Turkey from Antiquity to Today Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tatars: The History of the Tatar Ethnic Groups and Tatar Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ottoman Empire: History of Constantinople and the Rise and Fall of the Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Empire and Jihad: The Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870-1920 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle of Chaldiran: The History and Legacy of the Ottoman Empire’s Decisive Victory Over the Safavid Dynasty in Anatolia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErdogan Rising: The Battle for the Soul of Turkey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Turkish War of Independence: The History of the Conflicts that Created the Modern State of Turkey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mughal Empire: The History of the Modern Dynasty that Ruled Much of India Before the British Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory of the Ottoman Empire Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Byzantine Empire: A Complete Overview Of The Byzantine Empire History from Start to Finish Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Harun al-Rashid: The Life and Legacy of the Abbasid Caliph during the Islamic Golden Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ottoman Empire: An Enthralling Guide to One of the Mightiest and Longest-Lasting Dynasties in World History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Mughals and Their India Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rise of Islam in the Balkans: The History of the Ottoman Empire’s Islamization Efforts in Eastern Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Distant Lands: A Short History of the Crusades Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Russian History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Middle Eastern History For You
Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Palestine Peace Not Apartheid: Peace Not Apartheid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Beirut to Jerusalem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Islam: A Short History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Generation Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case for Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Young Turks
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good history knowledge of the ottoman empire demise and the birth of the new Turkey