Rating: 
Summary: Kinzer provides an interesting viewpoint
Review: Stephen Kinzer's book is completely about his perceptions of where Turkey has been, where it is, and what could happen in the future. The fact that he lived in and seems to love Turkey makes his a viewpoint that is worth considering - even for those who won't agree with every word. It is NOT a quick overview of Turkish history for the tourist who wants to hop over and see the country in a week. I'm not a political analyst or an expert in Middle Eastern cultures yet I found the book thought provoking and easily understandable.
Rating:
Summary: I read this book with great enthusiasm.
Review: My home country Turkey is one of the least understood and maybe most misjudged amongst the others in the world. I wanted to say this so many times "Listen my friend, the era of Midnight Express is over. The ancient prison building where that movie was shot now is a 5 star Four Seasons Hotel at which only a few people can afford to stay. And J.F.K. Jr. did not spend his honeymoon in Istanbul to get tortured by Turkish police."Based on the fact that Kinzer lived in Istanbul (4 years) and reported for NY Times, I was very enthusiastic about reading his book as I read his columns in the paper. I wasn't disappointed after I finished it. It's true that Turkish government ("devlet") has a lot of work to do before it reaches the fully democratic state (not an uncommon situation in the Middle East). But I wouldn't go too far like him reporting some of the gossips he heard from the people on the street as probable facts of Armenian genocide. He should have read more history before giving "advices" to military autocrats regarding Kurdish and Armenian claims. I had a relief after I saw the Amazon.com's statistics; people who bought Crescent and Star also read Justin McCarthy's. Otherwise, I agree with everything else he says. There is a Turkish saying; "best friends tell you the sour truth". He is one of the many Americans who enjoyed being with warm blooded people living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. He even swam across the Bosphorus in which I couldn't even stay for 5 minutes, definitely drank more Raki and ate more "meze" than me. Turks will benefit from positively criticizing themselves, work harder to achieve a fully democratic, secular and modern Islamic nation status. A little more understanding from the western world (especially from Europe) would encourage my home country to become the leader of "modern" Islamic states in the world- instead of being forgotten between the east and west. I strongly support the author demonstrating Turkey as an example of being an Islamic nation does not necessarily mean living in the past ages.
Rating: 
Summary: difficult to rate book, author fails to understand us
Review: My first question to the author would be, What is the
relevance of comments made about Ottomans before 1923
on today's Turkey? If Voltaire was not too crazy
about the Ottomans why would you include his
remarks in a book about today's Turkey? I thought
they had no place in this book, ancient comments like those only
keep fueling the ignorance about turkey. My other gripe
with the book is that the author took large amounts of time
and space literally lecturing his reader. The redundancy and the preaching
was hard on me. The repetitive "get the army out of
the way, give Kurds whatever they want, Admit to an armenian genocide you never committed, Let the Islamic fundamentalists wear what they want, don't be afraid of Greece" message just
plain wore me down. I felt Kinzer never quite saw our side of things (when he did he quickly went back to the other side of the argument/disagreement) and was for the most time rooting for the minorities, Western powers and their mouthpieces (literary and otherwise, dead or living!!), or extremists, Armenians, Kurdish seperatists who live in Turkey. I was disappointed since I had high expectations for the author having read him before. This is a capable, thoughtful guy who is very in tune with the culture he is writing about. So what went wrong? Hard to answer although raki could be one possible culprit. ;)
Rating: 
Summary: Analysis From Inside: The Real Picture
Review: This one of the best books on this subject recently undoubtedly. Kinzer has done a great job in exposing the most relevant aspects of a complex country expertly highlighting the interconnectedness of it all that has eluded many other writers. His journalist intution has kept him in focus and at the same time always sensitive to context.
One really feels that he tells from personal and direct experience in Turkey, not from book or journal research. He has also done what many have failed: include the common man's view of events in Turkey and their motivations and the historical and cultural factors behind them.
His conclusions that a much more rapid and positive change in Turkey is very much prevented by the very conservative and protective elite rulers is very much on target. A fact that is now painfully clear to many there also.
It is written with clarity, manages to touch upon all current issues and good use of references are made.
Even though there will always be some who will disagree with his various analysis and conclusions, he could not be so easily dismissed as he writes about facts with great authority.
This is such a rich and interesting topic that a very large variety of readers are likely to find it a very worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Star Analysis
Review: This book came as a delight. I also read nearly all of Stephen Kinzer's reports as I have been working as a journalist in Istanbul for over ten years, off and on. He called to mind so much of the paradox one faces in Turkey, including some of the insanity which I tend to suppress to save my own. Mr. Kinzer was the best speaker we had at a local business club last year, so it is really no surprise that he should come up with a winning look at modern Turkey. The book seems appropriate for beginners and old hands alike Ð a rare feat in any field.
Rating:
Summary: Good Introduction, but leaves the reader hungry for more
Review: This book was a very concise and readable explanation of the Turkish general political situation. The italic interludes suggest Hemingway's _In Our Time_, probably one of the few books widely read in America that discusses the war between the Turks and the Greeks in the twenties. I wish there had been some more information on the culture and society of modern Turkey, particularly about Turkish women. I hope the New York Times has sent or will send a woman to the Istanbul bureau.
Rating:
Summary: At last an honest book on Turkey!
Review: Dear Mr Kinzer,
As a French-Canadian foreign spouse who has lived in Turkey 35 years, let me thank you for this honest, sincere and deeply felt book you have written on Turkey. One needs no great explanations to understand that you did love this country and felt its miseries and problems as much as the Turks do. The exactitude you show in evaluating the politicians, in describing the ambiguous position of the army,your frankness in relating the everlasting unsolved problems of the Armenians and the Kurds cannot be fully understood by readers who know little about this country.
As Ý boarded the plane from Montreal coming towards Ýstanbul,
it was difficult for me to put the book down even for dinner, or for a cup of tea. The book reads like wonder and these chapters on the turkish meal, on the nargile, are excellent to show the character and living style of the Turks. Ýt is a pleasure to read a good book on Turkey at last if one considers the lack of honest books about this country. Having completed a memoir on my experience in this country, Ý can understand what you must have gone throught while writting this book. Elinize saðlýk!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but shallow
Review: The book is basically structured around a variety of themes that Kinzer believes either speak to Turkey's present day dilemmas or are indispensable to understand the notion of being a citizen of Turkey. Some of these themes are the achievements and cult of Ataturk, interplay between the military and political circles, the Kurdish problem, the status of religion, human rights matters, the 1999 earthquake, relations with Greece and Turkey's future potential. Interspersed with these themes are vignettes about life in Turkey, touching on such subjects as the art of raki drinking, Gallipoli, nargile smoking, Turks in Korea, Bosphorus, Nazim Hikmet, cirit, wrestling, and the author's interrogation by security forces in SouthEast Turkey.
One common theme that emanates from the book is the pleasure Kinzer has derived from having lived in Turkey and his conviction that Turkey is capable of achieving so much more. At the same time he feels compelled to "show the way" on issues that Turkey needs to resolve to achieve that promise. While many of Kinzer's diagnoses and assessments are accurate and realistic, not all are. I believe his analysis is especially deficient and superficial in his treatment of the threats Turkey faces. His view is that the threats Turkey faced during its founding are basically all gone and Turkey should now go all the way in terms of being magnanimous with its neighbors in solving its bilateral problems, owning up to issues in its recent and more distant past and opening up the society internally. He also consistently voices the opinion that the ruling classes in Turkey, politicians and the army brass, are quite paranoid about blowing up unfounded fears to restrict the opening of the society. I believe this premise is flawed; the least so by the fact that three of the four countries (other than Afghanistan) identified as terrorist countries in the world today are Turkey's direct neighbors. And the ones that are not mentioned in this count are Greece, Bulgaria, Russia and Armenia, all of whom have for decades worked openly or secretly to undermine the Turkish society and nation. There is not a single other country in the world that faces a geography like this. I wonder whether Americans would feel their country faced no threats if both Canada and Mexico were fomenting terrorist activities in the U.S. and Japan, Germany and Russia were funding, training and organizing terrorist activities inside the U.S.!
Turkey has also clearly faced an armed insurgency for the past 20 years, explicitly funded, trained and protected by foreign powers including Greece, Armenia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Germany, Belgium and France among others. Kinzer's analysis of the PKK matter is therefore somewhat superficial. His assessment of the Armenian issue is also very superficial, one-sided and void of any real research. His treatise does not go any further than repeating known propaganda. You can get as clear and as unbiased an opinion of the matter as you would if you covered the Sep 11 tragedy by only reflecting to Al Kaida and Taliban's perspectives! I believe Kinzer is much closer to the mark in his treatment of Ataturk, corruption in political circles and the impact of the earthquake in the Turkish psyche. I am sure that some of the public policy and security measures that have been in place in Turkey for some time must have gained a whole new respect in Kinzer's eyes, when viewed in the context of the recent security precautions and measures U.S. has felt compelled to adopt, all the way to military tribunals.
The delight of the book is in the slice-of-life vignettes, or "meze" sections, as Kinzer calls them. Here Kinzer is very effective in describing the tone of the country, its people and heritage.
Overall, the book is useful in presenting to the reader a summary of all major issues on Turkey's agenda in the last decade.
Rating: 
Summary: this book is shallow
Review: This book was a big disappointment. I hoped to learn more about Turkish society and get and insight into the events that led to the formation of modern Turkish nation. I didn't get it.
The chapters in this book remind me of extra long magazine editorials, in which Mr. Kinzer lectures the Turks how to run their nation. "The Turkish government should...." is the most common phrase in this book. Very little is said about the Turkish people, their culture, history, etc. Only a few paragraphs are devoted to Kemal Ataturk. Little is mentioned about Turkey's relations to its neighbors. A reader may get the impression that the country exists in vacuum, surrounded only by the fears and fobias of its politicians. This book is all about lecturing the Turkish government in what they should do and what they shouldn't do. The style of the author reminds me of the US government rhetoric towards Human Rights in China. For some reason many Americans believe that they know the answer to all the problems in the universe.
Not only Mr. Kinzer gives advices but he claims that he know where most Turks stand on particular issue. They, of course, tend to support his ideas. No evidence is given to confirm his convictions. According to Mr. Kinzer most Turks will always agree with him.
All the information in this 250-page book could have been compiled in 50 pages or less. The book is full of redundancy. The author keeps repeating his opinion on a particular topic over, and over, and over again. It is not enough to say just once what the Turkish government should do but it has to be repeated again and again in every single chapter.
Mr. Kinzer goes as far as to give his own opinion on the intellectual capacities of Turkish politicians. Prime ministers are described as 'unimaginative', 'lacking analytical power' and even as 'lacking intelligence' (p.73). How does he know? One conversation is not enough to determine the intellectual capacity of an individual.
The book lack objectivity but what is even worse, it lacks content. "Shallow" is the right word to describe it.
Rating:
Summary: An informative look at modern Turkey and it's roots.
Review: This book gives a good overview of the historical roots of modern Turkey. Today's Turkey was formed from remnants of the Ottoman Empire shortly after it's defeat in World War I. A group of military officers led by Kamel Ataturk (the Father of Modern Turkey) took control of what was left of the Empire and put in place a military stewardship that has tried to slowly bring Turkey into the modern world in the mold of a European nation, not an Asian nation. Several civilian governments have taken control in past decades, but they drifted from the ideal established by Ataturk and the military stepped in to reestablish moderation. The military has fought liberals as well as radicals and has kept the government secular, supervising and picking acceptable ministers and controlling elections. Turkey has been beset with many internal problems. They have a diverse population and have just finished a long and bloody war with the Kurds that populate their easter provinces. (The Kurds were backed, armed, and financed by Syria just to bring Turkey down a notch). The author aptly explains why Turkey is at a crossroad where it can achieve greatness or sink into obscurity. The Turkish people are a good people. Most of the population is not Arabic. The predominant religion is Islam. The country stands between Europe and Asia and is surrounded by potential danger. The Turks are still waiting and hoping to gain complete freedom in their country. In addition to the historical and political background, the author gives insight about the country and it's people from experience gained by wide travel throughout the country and close contact with many of the diverse people that live there.
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