Negative Positive
Title: Balance, please
Review: This book should be balanced by a careful reading of Speros Vryonis'The Turkish State and History: Clio Meets the Grey Wolf.Kinzer, as one other reviewer pointed out, is not an historian, and he has left out here the serious history of oppression against minorities, including the Armenians, Greeks, Jewish people, and (more recently), the Kurds.Unfortunately, this book lionizes Kemal Ataturk, while failing to analyze his serious historical shortcomings. It's unfortunate, because Ataturk set in motion notions that Turkey is the source of all civilization, history and language, and racist theories that, in Vryonis' words, amount to the Turkification of Gobineau.Whatever it is, this book does not honestly assess the essence of Turkey, its history, or its future prospects.--Alyssa A. Lappen
Is the review positive or negative? 