![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Book in brief: Akçapar’s Turkey’s New European Era
After several weeks of telling myself that I’m going to pick up this book again and finish it I suspect that I’ve discovered exactly where my reluctance comes from. Especially when chapter three was peppered with references to Kagan’s Paradise and Power aptly enough already.
In a general reading context that’s not much of a problem but as far as a basic overview of Turkish accession goes Turkey’s New European Era simply isn’t an academic text in the same way that Paradise and Power isn’t. Its skirts the border of that sort of category and provides a list of references and a selected bibliography which the Kagan didn't but it’s less a quick historical overview than an overview framed by the politest sort of pro-Turkish propaganda. And it is very polite propaganda; even Rebirth: A Political History of Europe Since World War II by Black et al. was far sharper in it’s biases. Granted, I’m rather pro-Turkish accession myself though with moderately less intensity than my rabid European federalism. Vive l’Empire Union européenne and so on which is enough to qualify my Realist inclinations, though in this case the empire state involved is Europe. But European imperialistic tendencies aside, this means that the text is supporting my preference: so what could possibly be the problem? To which the answer is everything, because while it’s nice that there’s a relatively light and thus accessible treatment of the pro-Turkish view out there; it’s still not a strictly analytical one. Because this isn’t an overview occasionally coloured by the author’s bias but rather a polarised argument supported by various historical, economic and political points and at this stage in the game that’s really not what I’m looking to read.
Still, once I have done sufficient background reading on the topic I’m likely to come back to this text to compare representation and biases so it will still be a handy thing to have in my possession. But in the meantime that means that I can either start on Çarkoğlu & Rubin’s Turkey and the European Union or actually go back to the Shaw which I’ve been deliberately avoiding because I’m pedant enough to want to read both volumes in order rather than jump to the second which will be more relevant to the topic in hand.
In other news; Anne Rice is still crazy though the comment from one IMDB user that "Luther was a revolutionary. What is Christ-like about that?" of course immediately puts me in mind of Mark 11:15. And works as an excuse to wave this image macro about again.
Edit: Having finished Easton & Liszt’s The Ethical Slut I’d be inclined to write a mini-review if not for the fact that it’s a straightforward take on polyamory that simply reminds the reader of the obvious and could probably be encapsulated by that one line from David Usher’s Devil by my Side: "Believe your truth is not my truth" in a final analysis. Because the point is about choice and how one person’s choice doesn’t necessarily have to be a threat to anyone else’s if the lines of communication remain open and honest.
In a general reading context that’s not much of a problem but as far as a basic overview of Turkish accession goes Turkey’s New European Era simply isn’t an academic text in the same way that Paradise and Power isn’t. Its skirts the border of that sort of category and provides a list of references and a selected bibliography which the Kagan didn't but it’s less a quick historical overview than an overview framed by the politest sort of pro-Turkish propaganda. And it is very polite propaganda; even Rebirth: A Political History of Europe Since World War II by Black et al. was far sharper in it’s biases. Granted, I’m rather pro-Turkish accession myself though with moderately less intensity than my rabid European federalism. Vive l’
Still, once I have done sufficient background reading on the topic I’m likely to come back to this text to compare representation and biases so it will still be a handy thing to have in my possession. But in the meantime that means that I can either start on Çarkoğlu & Rubin’s Turkey and the European Union or actually go back to the Shaw which I’ve been deliberately avoiding because I’m pedant enough to want to read both volumes in order rather than jump to the second which will be more relevant to the topic in hand.
In other news; Anne Rice is still crazy though the comment from one IMDB user that "Luther was a revolutionary. What is Christ-like about that?" of course immediately puts me in mind of Mark 11:15. And works as an excuse to wave this image macro about again.
Edit: Having finished Easton & Liszt’s The Ethical Slut I’d be inclined to write a mini-review if not for the fact that it’s a straightforward take on polyamory that simply reminds the reader of the obvious and could probably be encapsulated by that one line from David Usher’s Devil by my Side: "Believe your truth is not my truth" in a final analysis. Because the point is about choice and how one person’s choice doesn’t necessarily have to be a threat to anyone else’s if the lines of communication remain open and honest.