Modern Times: Once Upon a Time

Fikret Başkaya is one of the rare people who show us with their lives and choices that man's intellectual existence actually coincides with his struggle for liberation. His work and struggle, which is a radical objection to capitalism, Eurocentric modernization, the official ideology and official history created by the nationalization process in Turkey, have gained the respect of both his own society and the international opposition. His insistence on expressing the truth caused him to be imprisoned in prisons by those in power, and his upright stance against those in power for the sake of the ideal of liberation caused him to be accepted as an example by people from all walks of life. His students and friends, Hakan Mertcan and Aydın Ördek, called on many intellectuals in the summer of 2012 for the book of respect, which will be a badge of Fikret Başkaya's struggle. The study, completed two years later with the contributions of many intellectuals from Turkey and abroad, was compiled in two volumes.

The volume of the study titled Nation, State, Intellectual begins with the chapter titled "Fikret Başkaya: Human and Intellectual", which focuses on the life and intellectual adventure of Fikret Başkaya. This section includes a long interview the editors had with Başkaya about his life and work, and articles about his intellectual meaning. The section of the volume titled "Intellectual" includes Işık Ergüden's article on the political and philosophical meaning of the intellectual and Mete Kaan Kaynar's article on defining the intellectual in Turkey. The last section titled "National Problem" consists of competent contributions written by 19 authors, from Michael Löwy, İsmail Beşikçi to Tanıl Bora, who cover various topics from the origin of ethnic differentiation to the national problem in the October Revolution, from the left and nationalism to the Kurdish issue.

The volume of the study titled Modern Times: Once Upon a Time consists of two parts. The articles compiled under the title of "Modernization" consist of contributions on the subjects of Marxism, the left, religion, legal theory, Middle Eastern modernization, and Turkish political life. The second part of the volume, titled "Capitalism", consists of the writings of 27 authors, from Eric Hobsbawn to Samir Amin, Anwar Shaikh, Kadir Cangızbay and Alaattin Şenel, focusing on economic theory, criticism of neoliberalism, development and social opposition.
(From the Promotional Bulletin)



Number of Pages: 440

Year of Printing: 2014


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Nota Bene Publications

Number of Pages: 440

First Printing Year: 2014

Language: Turkish