Ders

A critical approach to history-writing in the Republican era. The institutionalization and professionalization of History as an academic discipline. Historical backwardness, catching-up agendas, national developmentalism, and the "Prussian way" in Turkey. Nationalism, historians, and the state. The construction of a national canon from Akçura and Köprülü, through Barkan, to İnalcık. Universalism vs particularism. History from above vs history from below. Odd men out : Reşat Ekrem Koçu, Mustafa Akdağ. Debates over Islamic, Ottoman or Turkish identities/legacies as reflected in Art History. The contrasting worlds of historians and archeologists. The apertura of the 1950s and 60s. The advent of social and economic history. Debates over imperialism, underdevelopment, and pre-capitalist modes of production. The post-60s generation in History and the Social Sciences. For the possibility of taking this course as a graduate research seminar subject to the special requirement of producing a major research paper, see HIST 690.