We, Sinem and I, have decided to celebrate the second anniversary of our marriage in Kars. Kars sounds magical, especially in winter. I have had my eyes on Kars since reading Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, which takes place in Kars. So far, Kars did not disappoint us at all, even though there is no snow! We … Read more
Despite being a star academic, he was kind enough to return my emails when I was an MA student. His Weapons of the Weak was influential in political thinking, and his Seeing Like a State was a major source for me retreating from a particular radical politics. In my Rice years, my research focus changed, … Read more
Just finished Barbara Kingsolver‘s Demon Copperhead. It grasped my soul while reading it. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce … Read more
A former graduate student of mine published a book on “White Slaves.” These were mostly Circassians (and many Caucasian region people labeled as Circassians), and although slavery was banned in the late Ottoman Empire, slavery continued until the 1940s in Anatolia albeit in a a very smaller scale! This is quite an awakening moment for … Read more
I am reading a nice book A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul. One chapter deals with the fires. It was the most damaging disaster for centuries. Mavi Boncuk listed major fires: Major Named Istanbul Fires Mavi Boncuk | The period with no organized Tulumba Fire Crews until 1714. Important fires of this period; 1510 It … Read more
When I began to read The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion, the Hamas attack and the subsequent massacres in Gaza by Israel hadn’t happened yet. Right now I am reading how Jewish women fighters led the resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and how … Read more
It is Christian who introduced me to Theodor Fontane. A year ago, we were walking through the places where Fontane described in his novel. I finished heartbreaking Effi Briest while staring at foresty mountains in Trabzon. I have fallen in love with Abdulrazak Gurnah and recently finished his Afterlives. Here is an accidental find. A … Read more
Although “companion” may sound like a long textual content Patricia Seed had collected 100 relatively less known maps from the history of map making and added short informative and enjoyable texts to invited the readers to a journey in world history and map making. The Oxford Map Companion: One Hundred Sources in World History I … Read more
They are not in my immediate research interests, but I enjoyed and benefitted from reading them: Critiques of Everyday Life: An Introduction A very informative summary of major schools of thought and thinkers on the everyday life. Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam One of the most informative pieces on the issue of … Read more
I have been lucky to bump into a series of novels. The styles, the content, etc. are all different, but they all take place, mostly during WW2. In case you are interested in here are novels I have read or am reading. My whole reading profile is at Goodreads. Eternal by Lisa Scottoline The Tin … Read more
I have just finished reading Mehmet Kurt’s book: Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey: Islamism, Violence and the State. This was a leisure reading and I do not claim expertise on this topic but as far as I could see, this is one of the best monographs about the Hizbullah in Turkey. This notorious organization has no … Read more
I have read three novels recently. I did choose them randomly but they seem to have a common them. The protagonist is a woman who struggles against a triangle of poverty, misery, and political chaos. These heartbreaking novels but there is some hope in the end. In Future tense: Parable of the Sower by Butler, … Read more
Kobani resistance is such a powerful symbol that extremists and their (hidden) supporters are keen to punish this victory in one way or another. I guess, women’s role in his resistance is even a bigger blow to fundamentalists and patriarchy in the region. I do not intend to romanticize the “Rojava Revolution.” I wish democratic … Read more
I have recently read The Red Web. It is a sad story of how Putin gradually controlled internet communications within Russia. The gradual process reminded what we have encountered back in Turkey. In Turkish autocrats’ discourse, Turkey aims to create a China-like situation but I believe more and more that they had just followed Putin’s … Read more
One of my ongoing interests is reading on web history (historiography) but also digital archiving. I happened to see two handbooks with different orientations. I have read one of them and I am reading the other one. Although there are overlapping cases and issues, I would say that The SAGE Handbook of Web History mostly … Read more