Ataturk

About this book

"In this new biography of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first to appear in English based on Turkish sources, Andrew Mango strips away the myth to show the complexities of one of the most visionary, influential, and enigmatic statesmen of the century - his high ideals and ruthless tactics, his championship of women's rights and his inability to sustain an equal relationship with women, his nationalism and his belief in a single universal civilization, his regular drinking bouts and the strange theories they produced." "In Turkey today Ataturk is invoked at every turn in domestic politics, and a law protects his memory from insult. Andrew Mango's portrait of Ataturk reveals a man who, while responsible for some of his country's ills, transformed the republic from a battle-scarred ruin into a regional power. It is a fascinating story and one that throws light on other matters of great importance today - resurgent nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and the reality of democracy. Above all, Ataturk's life makes us consider again the ever-controversial questions about human progress posed by the European Enlightenment that inspired him."--BOOK JACKET.