EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Crowley, Roger. 1453, The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West. Hyperion, 2006. In this well-paced history, Crowley recounts the dramatic events leading up to and surrounding the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. (PAPER, 304 Pp.)

King, Charles. Midnight at the Pera Palace, The Birth of Modern Istanbul. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015. A 20th-century history of the Near East through the prism of one of its greatest cities, Istanbul, and its famous hotel, the Pera Palace. This is a fine book on the formation of modern Istanbul. (PAPER, 480 Pp.) Netflix adapted the book into a series, but it pales in comparison to the book! https://www.netflix.com/title/81212136

Kinzer, Stephen. Crescent and Star. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008. This insightful, anecdotal report on contemporary life, culture and politics in Turkey comes from a former New York Times Istanbul bureau chief who is especially attuned to the powerful geographic position of Turkey and its multiple identities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. (PAPER, 265 Pp.)

Pamuk, Orhan. Istanbul, Memories and the City. Random House, 2006. Nobel Prize-winner Pamuk writes with dazzling grace of the city of his birth, a magical place of crumbling mansions and Ottoman riches. This book will provide a good sense of Turkey’s transformation and its effects on the built environment, social relations, and a nation’s emotions.  (PAPER, 320 Pp.)

Pamuk, Orhan. The Museum of Innocence. Alfred Knopf, 2010. Pamuk plumbs the depths of romantic attachment while exploring the tension between modernity and tradition in 1970s and 80s Istanbul. (PAPER, 560 Pp.)

Ahmad, Feroz. Turkey, The Quest for Identity. Oneworld Publications, 2014. In this concise history, Ahmad presents Turkey as a nation caught between the ideologies of East and West, honored as the first secular republic in the Islamic world. (PAPER, 252 Pp.)

Finkel, Andrew. Turkey, What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press, 2011. From the Kurdish question to economic policy, Turkey’s role in Iraq and its quest for EU membership, Finkel illuminates the past and present of this strategically important nation in lively, straightforward prose. The Istanbul-based journalist brings balance and insight to the task. (PAPER, 188 Pp.)

Goodwin, Jason. Lords of the Horizons. Picador USA, 2003. Goodwin artfully combines his modern travels with scholarship, history and reflection, capturing the outrageous personalities, events and vagaries of the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire. (PAPER, 351 Pp.)

Kinzer, Stephen. Reset, Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future. Griffin Publishing, 2011. A master storyteller with an eye for grand characters and illuminating historical detail, Kinzer introduces grand themes and larger-than-life figures, like a Nebraska schoolteacher who became a martyr to democracy in Iran, a Turkish radical who transformed his country and Islam forever, and a colorful parade of princes, politicians, women of the world, spies, oppressors, liberators, and dreamers. (PAPER, 284 Pp.)

Lloyd, Seton. Ancient Turkey, A Traveller’s History. University of California Press, 2013. A lively tale of cultures and conquest, from the Hittites to St. Paul, that illuminates the living past of Turkey’s archaeological treasures. This classic by Professor Lloyd, first director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, is now in a 25th anniversary edition. (PAPER, 240 Pp.)

Norwich, John Julius. A Short History of Byzantium. Alfred Knopf, 1998. A richly detailed and evocative history of the span of the great empire from the fourth to the 15th century, brimming with intrigue, palace revolution and treachery. (PAPER, 432 Pp.)

Pamuk, Orhan. The Innocence of Objects. Harry N. Abrams, 2012. Pamuk combines old movie stills, photographs of mundane objects, family portraits and other ephemera of everyday life in this illustrated portrait of his beloved Istanbul. (PAPER, 264 Pp.)

Stoneman, Richard. A Traveller’s History of Turkey. Interlink Publishing Group, 2009. An accessible, well-written overview of Turkish history from the Paleolithic to the present. (PAPER, 247 Pp.)

The Bandit (Eşkiya). Yavuz Turgul, director.1996. Baran the Bandit, released from prison after 35 years, searches for vengeance and his lover in Istanbul. This was Turkey’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film in the 70th Academy Awards.

Dust Cloth (Toz Bezi). Ahu Ozturk, director. 2015. Nesrin and Hatun are two Kurdish cleaning women living in Istanbul. While Nesrin tries to survive with her little daughter, trying to understand why her husband left her, Hatun dreams of buying a house in the district where they clean.

Hey There! (Seni Buldum Ya!). Reha Erdem, director. 2021. Istanbul is under quarantine. Felek and Kerim find the best way to make profits in this period. They will access people's computers and introduce themselves as government officials, making them confess their "crimes". However, the city in question is Istanbul and all kinds of people live here.

La Belle Indifference (Küçük Şeyler). Kıvanç Sezer, director. 2019. Onur is sacked from his job as manager of a pharmaceutical company and is not worried. But his wife Bahar is. Onur doesn't listen to her and becomes indifferent to her and the world around him. He'd rather be surrounded by more zebras.

Love Spells and All That (Ask, Buyu, Vs). Ümit Ünal, director. 2019. After not having seen each other for 20 years, two women are reunited on the small Turkish island where, as teenagers, they first fell in love. What is the mysterious force that binds them together after all this time? And what can they do about it?

My Father and My Son (Babam ve Oglum). Çağan Irmak, director. 2005. The family of a left-wing journalist is torn apart after the military coup of Turkey in 1980.      

The Road (Yol). Şerif Gören / Yılmaz Güney, directors. 1982. When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.

Waiting for the Clouds (Bulutları Beklerken). Yeşim Ustaoğlu director. 2004. Ayse/Eleni who is a member of a Greek family in Turkey is forced to immigrate from Trabzon to Mersin in her early ages. However, the events that happen cause her to face her own past.

Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Agaci).  Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director. 2018. An unpublished writer returns to his hometown after graduating, where he seeks sponsors to publish his book while dealing with his father's deteriorating indulgence into gambling.