Introduction

Summary

Turkey held its first democratic elections in 1950 and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952. These dramatic domestic and international developments facilitated an equally dramatic reinterpretation of the country’s imagined past and its anticipated future. Under the influence of electoral politics and Cold War competition, Turkish politicians, intellectuals, and voters articulated a distinct vision of mid-century modernity, at once aspirationally liberal, proudly nationalistic, rationally pious, and appropriately prosperous. They optimistically asserted, with the enthusiastic agreement of many foreign observers, that Turkey was on the verge of transcending its notorious clichés by finally reconciling religion and secularism, tradition and modernity, and, of course, East and West.