BOOK REVIEW
Bulgarian Archives State Agency
[michailgruev@abv.bg]
An Objective and Critical Look at Mustafa Kemal and his Era
Ханиоглу, М. Шукрю (2024). Ататюрк: История на идеи. София: УИ “Св. Климент Охридски”, ISBN – 978-954-07-5981-4, 196 с.
Abstract: The review presents the Bulgarian translation of the book by M. Şükrü Hanioğlu „Atatürk: An Intellectual Biography“. In his book historian M. Şükrü Hanioğlu offers a nuanced and rigorous exploration of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk not merely as a military leader or a founder of modern Turkey, but as a complex intellectual shaped by the ideological currents of his time. Rather than focusing on biographical detail or nationalist mythologies, Hanioğlu situates Atatürk within the broader context. The book traces how Atatürk’s formative influences ‒ ranging from French Enlightenment thought to Ottoman constitutionalism ‒ contributed to his vision of a rational, centralized, and modern nation-state. Hanioğlu emphasizes that Atatürk’s reforms were not improvised or idiosyncratic, but grounded in a coherent, albeit selective, intellectual project. From language and legal reforms to secular education and the marginalization of Islam in public life, Atatürk emerges as a figure deeply committed to reshaping Turkish society in the image of what he saw as Western modernity. The Bulgarian edition, “Ataturk: A History of Ideas”, published in 2024, opens up this critical and scholarly perspective to Bulgarian-speaking audiences at a time of renewed regional interest in modern state-building, secularism, and the legacies of empire. It provides not only a portrait of a pivotal historical figure, but also a valuable case study in how ideas ‒ both imported and locally adapted—can be harnessed to drive radical social transformation.
Keywords: Mustafa Kemal; biography; history; ideas.
Reference
Hanioğlu, M. Ş. (2017). Atatürk: An intellectual biography. Princeton University Press.
Hanioğlu, M. Ş. (2023). Atatürk: entelektüel biyografi. Bağlam Yayıncılık.
Hanioglu, M. S. (2021). Atatürk: Visionär einer modernen Türkei. Verlag Herder GmbH.
Hanioglu, M. S. (1995). The young Turks in opposition. Oxford University Press.
Hanioğlu, M. Ș. (2008). A brief history of the late Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press.
Hanioglu, M. S. (2001). Preparation for a revolution: the Young Turks, 1902-1908. Oxford University Press.