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Podcast: New Books in German Studies
Episode: Stefan Ihrig, “Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination” (Harvard UP, 2014)
Description: In Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination (Harvard University Press, 2014), historian Stefan Ihrig examines the history of Mustafa Kemal and Republican Turkey through the interpretive lens of Nazi political discourse. Ihrig shows how Ataturk’s Turkey became a symbol of resistance and national rebirth in the interwar period. Challenging semi-colonial or orientalist visions of Turkey held by British and French, German nationalists saw many of their own aspirations play out in Anatolia after World War I. Ataturk’s struggle against the Entente and the Greek Army became an inspiration for the right-wing press, initially overshadowing early fascist leaders like Benito Muss...