Learning to Read in the Late Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic

' I was much impressed by Benjamin C. Fortna' s book Learning to Read in Late Ottoman and the Early Turkish Republic. The author, [. . .] possesses considerable expertise in the field of Ottoman education. . . . ' - Professor Johann Strauss, Department of Turkish Studies, Strasbourg University, France

' Fortna has succeeded admirably at tackling the daunting question of how people learned to read in the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish republic. His close examination of how and what children read reveals that the very process of acquiring literacy enabled citizens of the nation-state to think beyond and around the framework imposed by nationalist ideologies. His detailed and sophisticated analysis now makes it possible for us to incorporate the Ottoman/Turkish case into broader studies that seek to make sense of the role of literacy in the social histories of modernity and nationalism. '

- Dr Gavin Brockett, Wilfred Laurier University, Canada