About this item
At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock. Yet in Istanbul--an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city--people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs--a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne'er-do-wells. During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII.
About the Author
Charles King is the author of seven books, including the New York Times-bestselling GODS OF THE UPPER AIR (2019) , winner of the Francis Parkman Prize and the Anisfield-Wolf Award, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award and Los Angeles Times history prize; MIDNIGHT AT THE PERA PALACE (2014) , a New York Times Notable Book; and ODESSA: GENIUS AND DEATH IN A CITY OF DREAMS (2011) , winner of a National Jewish Book Award. He lectures widely on global affairs and has worked with broadcast media including NPR, MSNBC, and the BBC. A native of the Ozark hill country, King studied history and politics at the University of Arkansas and Oxford University, where he was a British Marshall Scholar. He is Professor of International Affairs and Government at Georgetown University, where he previously served as chair of the Department of Government and faculty chair of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. @charleskingdc, www.charleskingauthor.com. Author photo by Mary Fecteau.
