Product Description

This biography of Atatürk aims to strip away the myth to show the complexities of the man beneath. Born plain Mustafa in Ottoman Salonica in 1881, he trained as an army officer but was virtually unknown until 1919, when he took the lead in thwarting the victorious Allies' plan to partition the Turkish core of the Ottoman Empire.



He divided the Allies, defeated the last Sultan and secured the territory of the Turkish national state, becoming the first president of the new republic in 1923. He imposed coherence, order and mordernity and in the process, created his own legend and his own cult.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31498 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Simon Sebag Montifiore, Mail on Sunday
'Surely definitive ... I enjoyed every page and recommend this book highly'

Review
'Surely definitive ... I enjoyed every page and recommend this book highly' (Simon Sebag Montifiore, Mail on Sunday )

'A fluent, thorough and enjoyable biography, which for comprehensiveness, balance and deftness of touch outclasses all the alternatives for the English reader' (Mark Mazower, New Statesman )

'The best concise account I have ever seen of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The narrative is gripping. It does not merely present all the facts of Ataturk's career but paints a credible picture of the whole man' (Geoffrey Lewis )

'The profundity of Mango's analysis and his empathy with the years of national regeneration lift Ataturk to a higher level of biography than any previous account' (Alan Palmer, Literary Review )

'Takes its place at the top' (Norman Stone, Sunday Times )

About the Author
Andrew Mango was born in Istanbul. He complemented his knowledge of Turkish by studying Persian and Arabic at the School of Oriental Studies in London. From 1947 to 1986 he worked at the BBC, retiring as Head of South European and French Language Services. He has since been engaged full-time in the study of Turkish affairs. His next book, The Turks Today, will be published by John Murray in autumn 2004.

Customer Reviews

Balanced but critical for the sake of being critical
This is the first major biography of Ataturk after Kinross's 1960s opus. Unlike Kinross - whose book has been called hagiographical - this one deliberately approaches the subject with from a critical viewpoint. In places, this is apt, and leads to a better understanding of the consequences of certain actions. In others, it appears to place the author himself into the category of "those who can't, criticise". For that latter reason, I found the book to be vaguely unsettling, since all too often, the author starts taking himself and his criticism so seriously that the subject matter gets obscured. In addition, in an attempt to trump Kinross, Mango sometimes loses himself in cul-de-sacs; for example, Ataturk's love life is certainly interesting (and more varied than reported here) but is about as relevant to describing the man as is a study of Stalin's mistresses during the purges. Indeed, there is precious little here that is new or original, merely more detail which previous biographers appear to have chosen (wisely) to ignore. Moreover, the book sometimes resembles an autopsy rather than a biography. Calm, detached and clinical, yes, but with all the charm of an umeployment claim form. Mango's writing style is certainly less fluid and nowhere near as entertaining as Kinross's.

The superlatives piled on by the official reviews are a trifle overblown. I would recommend this book, but even more, the Kinross biography.

Lacks fluidity and not entirely objective
Mango's writing style lacks a certain something. I bought this as holiday reading for Turkey, got about half way through before grinding to a halt through, essentially, boredom. It was about another 4 months before I took a deep breath and picked up again from where I left off and completed it.

There's also a tangible lack of objectivity. True, this is no hagiography, indeed far from it. Apart from the many positives, the man with the burning desire to make Turkey and its people a peer amongst modern nations, we see many of the failings of Mustafa Kemal, who comes across sometimes a bit of a fantasist. His deeds at Gallipoli seem to have been somewhat exaggerated by himself. His "Sun language theory" which regarded Turkish as the original human language, and his claim that all the previous peoples of Asia Minor right into the distant past, Hittites, Phrygians etc. were Turkic, are like the ravings of a National Socialist madman. His six-day speech (Nutuk) to the Republican Party congress in 1927 would have made Stalin proud.

But, apart from Mustafa Kemal himself, the overall historical viewpoint seems a bit pro-Turkish, or at least totally unwilling to upset Turkish sensibilities, rather than objective. Even if there is no evidence anyway, Mango goes well out of his way to distance Mustafa Kemal as far as possible from any of the murders of political opponents - picturing him as the tragic Henry II to Thomas Becket. The Armenian genocide (sorry, "unfortunate loss of Armenian lives which were just some amongst many other incidental victims of the war too") gets not much more than a passing mention. There also appears the modern liberal-left tendency of blaming anyone but the actual perpetrator of a crime. The burning of Izmir and the expulsion and killing of Greeks there is not at all the fault of the Turks who actually did this, but it's rather the fault of we British, don't you know. Well silly me.

It's notable in this regard that many reviewers of the same author's The Turks Today: Turkey after Ataturk (which I haven't personally read) remark that his viewpoint is pro-Turkish nationalist.

Chronologically, the balance of the book feels a little out of kilter. The period incorporating the War of Independence is covered in perhaps too much detail to the detriment of the later years which seem to flit by in a flash. It would have been nicer to see and understand more of Mustafa Kemal's great achievement after the war.

Mango's deep knowledge of Turkey and the Turkish language along with access to documents put him in a position to be able to deliver a definitive work, but it is sullied by his subjectivity. Such an important figure from the 20th century deserves a better and more objective work than this. I have not read the Kinross biography, so cannot comment on the relative merits.

Right to the heart of Ataturk
A readable and absorbing insight into the life of the savior of Turkey, and founder of the modern Republic. His personal courage, crystal clear vision, unwavering love of nation, iron unshakable will, unending energy, and political genius are all fully illustrated. Also his empathy with the common Turk, his open and honest morals, his humour, and his disregard for his own safety even in battle, all show why he is still revered today. Andrew Mango has written an unmissable classic. His understanding of the subject shines through in almost all he writes, and in a style that warms the reader, even during the slower passages. But it must be said that Kinross' book still sets the standard,.... just.