A BOOK I STRONGLY RECOMMEND: … a clinic in writing contemporary history through journalism … Hansen skillfully weaves more than 100 years of late-Ottoman-to-Republican-era history into a narrative that contextualizes the cleavages in Turkish society and the various ways Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed them to remold the country in his image. This is the sort of book that made me attentive to how little I actually understood Turkey and Erdogan. The best sort of books have that effect on a reader. Without being overwrought, Hansen very skillfully invites comparisons with America in the era of Trump that land forebodingly. Her craftwork is no less impressive: her story begins with Erdogan’s early construction patronage, and the place her book ends makes it an inspired choice. Don’t miss this book.