"In a 2001 poll, Turks ranked the United States highest when asked: 'Which country is Turkey's best friend in international relations?' When the pollsters reversed the question--'Which country is Turkey's number one enemy in international relations?'--the United St...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben

1. Verfasser:	Gurel, Perin (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2017]
Schriftenreihe:	Columbia studies in international and global history.
Schlagworte:	Orientalism > United States. Orientalisme > États-Unis. HISTORY > Middle East > Turkey & Ottoman Empire. Civilization > Western influences Diplomatic relations Orientalism Turkey > Foreign relations > United States. United States > Foreign relations > Turkey. Turkey > Civilization > Western influences. Turkey United States
Online-Zugang:	Volltext
Zusammenfassung:	"In a 2001 poll, Turks ranked the United States highest when asked: 'Which country is Turkey's best friend in international relations?' When the pollsters reversed the question--'Which country is Turkey's number one enemy in international relations?'--the United States came in second. How did Turkey's citizens come to hold such opposing views simultaneously? In The Limits of Westernization, Perin E. Gürel analyzes the complex local uses of the 'the West' to explain this unique split and its echoes in contemporary U.S.-Turkey relations. Using Turkish and English sources, Gürel maps Turks' reactions to the rise of the United States in the twentieth century. As Turkey transitioned from an empire to a nation-state, the country's ruling elite projected 'westernization' as a necessary and desirable force but also feared its cultural damage. Turkish stock figures and figures of speech represented America both as a good model for selective westernization and as a dangerous source of degeneration. Meanwhile, U.S. policy makers imagined Turkey first as the main figure of Oriental barbarism and then, during the Cold War, as a good representative for modernization theory. As the Cold War transitioned to the War on Terror, Turks rebelled against the new U.S.-made trope of the 'moderate Muslim.' Local artifacts of westernization--folk culture crossed with American cultural exports--and alternative projections of modernity became tinder for both Turkish anti-Americanism and resistance to state-led modernization projects. Gürel traces how ideas about westernization and America have influenced national history writing and policy making, as well as everyday culture and identities. Foregrounding shifting tropes about and from Turkey--a regional power that continues to dominate American visions for the "modernization" of the Middle east--Gürel also illuminates the transnational development of powerful political tropes, from 'the Terrible Turk' to 'the Islamic Terrorist'."--
Beschreibung:	1 online resource (xii, 273 pages) : illustrations
Bibliographie:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-256) and index.
ISBN:	0231543964 9780231543965