In recent years, nationalism has reasserted itself globally as a potent, mobilizing political force. In Turkey, the perilous state of politics--indeed the crisis of identity in the state itself--is a symptom of the rift between the secular and Islamic nationalists, today the focus of intense and acrimonious debate.
In The Top Hat, the Grey Wolf, and the Crescent, Hugh Poulton traces the evolution of nationalism in Turkey since the days of the Ottoman empire, through the rule of Attatrk when secularism became the binding force of a new national identity, to the present when a Western liberal middle class battles an increasingly powerful Islamic movement. Starting with an examination of nationalism as a political ideology, Poulton profiles in detail the main contenders in the battle for Turkey's identity: the Top Hat (secular nationalism), the Grey Wolf (the pan-Turkist fringe), and the Crescent (pro- Islamic forces). Poulton also considers the effects of Turkish nationalism on various minority groups, including the Kurds and the Alevis, and sheds lights on the nationalist sentiments of Turks outside Turkey.