Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers?

Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers?

Paul J. White

Zed Books

This is the best scholarly analysis yet written on the PKK. It contextualises fully the Kurdish nationalist movement within the history and politics of Turkey during the last three decades as well as its transnational significance. Everyone interested in the history and politics of the Kurds, Turkey, the Middle East and the emergence and evolution of nationalist movements will want to read this book. It will be difficult in future to understand the great importance of the ‘Kurdish question’ in the Middle East and global politics in the 1990s and in the first decades of the 21st century without reading White’s book. Professor Robert Olson, University of Kentucky White’s book is refreshing because it shows that the ‘unaccomplished’ nature of modernity can produce paradoxical consequences. It opens new perspectives in the understanding of a wide range of nationalist movements across the world. Hamit Bozarslan, Ecole des Hautes Etudes et Sciences Sociales

Dr Paul J. White teaches Middle Eastern studies at Deakin University. A Kurdish studies specialist, he has contributed numerous papers and articles to learned journals, particularly on the Kurdish question. He is the editor (with William S. Logan) of Remaking the Middle East (Berg Publishers, 1997). He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and serves on the board of directors of the Kurdish Institute, Washington, DC.