This book contains seventeen Turkish papers presented at the conference entitled “Izmir and the Region: Hundred Years of Social, Economic and Cultural Change, 1850-1950,” held on 24-25 November 2017 at Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center in Izmir.
This country and its people had gone through a great adventure in the century between 1850-1950 that transcended the borders of the Republic of Turkey and transformed the Balkans and the Middle East as well. The main feature, the main axis, and the main change direction of this adventure is the transition process from a multi-religious, multi-national, and agricultural-based empire to nation-states. This process was painful, challenging, full of pain, and full of events that left traumatic traces in the lives of individuals. This conference, entitled “Izmir and the Region: Hundred Years of Social, Economic and Cultural Change, 1850-1950,” and papers presented here give us an idea about this great adventure, this homogenization and transition from empire to nation-state, sub-mechanisms of this transition, and what kind of nation-state this nation-state was.
