Ataturk - Softcover

'The best concise account I have ever seen of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The narrative is gripping. It does not merely present all the facts of Ataturk's career but paints a credible picture of the whole man. It is the definitive Ataturk book.' Geoffrey Lewis; 'Enjoyable and surely definitive... I enjoyed every page and recommend this book highly.' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Mail on Sunday; 'A fluent, thorough and enjoyable biography, which for comprehensiveness, balance and deftness of touch outclasses all the alternatives for the English reader.' Mark Mazower, New Statesman

This biography of Ataturk aims to strip away the myth to show the complexities of the man beneath.;Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founding father of the Turkish Republic, was born plain Mustafa in Ottoman Salonica in 1881. Trained as an army officer, he was virtually unknown until 1919, when he took the lead in thwarting the victorious Allies' plan to partition the Turkish core of the Ottoman Empire. He divided the Allies, worsted the last Sultan and secured the territory of the Turkish national state, becoming the first president of the new republic in 1923, transforming it from a battle-scarred ruin into a regional power, and fast creating his own legend and his own cult.