Atatürk biography

In a Sante Fe, New Mexico bookstore, I found a copy of the biography of Atatürk by Andrew Mango. It's excellent. It's rich with details of the context in which Atatürk (and, in effect, modern Turkey) was born. As if I didn't already have enough motivation to learn Turkish, this fine biography has added fuel to the fire.

Michael Doran, Washington Post Book World, writes that Mango's biography is "the best in the English language." I can't judge that for myself since it's the only biography I've seen so far of Atatürk. Though I'm only 106 pages into it, I can say that's it comprehensive, even going into the Enlightenment era French philosophy that influenced Atatürk and his contemporaries.

As my schedule permits, I'll be posting some excerpts from the book.