"Few questions are more urgent, especially since the eruption of the Arab Spring, than whether there is a 'Turkish model' for combining Islam with democracy. White's book, the culmination of many years of research, provides a magisterial guide to the complex reality behind this question. The book is must reading for scholars, members of the policy community, and educated citizens concerned with the interplay of religion and politics in the contemporary world."--Peter L. Berger, Boston University

"White's book is a bold and flawless analysis of the new Turkey's collective unconscious. This exceptional work must be read not only by Western observers but also by the Turks themselves."--Moris Farhi, author of Young Turk

"Innovative and original, this is a very important and insightful analysis of contemporary Turkish discourses on what it means to be Turkish and a member of the Turkish nation. White makes the significant argument that the divide in Turkey is not between secularism and religion, but rather is a struggle over what is sacred to the nation and where the boundaries of national identity should be drawn."--Marc Baer, author of The Donme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks

"Turkey is a country of contradictions, and very few authors have managed to paint so complex a picture of it as White. It is a nation where the secular elite has dogmatically made war on all things Islamic, yet this same elite embraces a Turkish nationalism rooted in the Islamic religion. This is a well-written, engaging, and smart book about contemporary Turkey, one that will be widely read and discussed."--Henri J. Barkey, Lehigh University