The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier

Özet

Chris Gratien’s book is about the transformation of Çukurova and its mountainous hinterland between Ottoman Tanzimat reforms in the mid-nineteenth century and Turkey's development initiatives in the mid twentieth century. Gratien claims that although the history of the Ottoman Empire is somehow well-known, it has rarely been portrayed with the rural lifestyle of individuals and locations at its core. He continues by saying that Ottoman history is mainly of the commercial and governmental decisions made in Istanbul and the provincial capitals, although the vast majority of the Ottoman population was made from those rural places, the decisions regarding those places were taken in central places.