UNDERSTANDING THE TURKISH HISTORY THESIS IN THE WORLD OF 1930S AND THE SAMPLE OF TARIH IV BOOK

Abstract

History is a long struggle that the human being makes by using his/her mind to understand his/her surrounding and to influence it. However, modern era has expanded this struggle severely. Now human being is trying to understand and influence not only his surroundings, but also himself/herself. This situation has added a new dimension both to mind and to history. In this study, firstly, a theoretical introduction will be made over the thoughts of Benedict Anderson and Anthony D. Smith by nationalism theories that they developed regarding the nation-building process, and then, the fact how Turkey has got through this process in the first years of Republic will be explained. Afterwards, will be mentioned of the content and function of the Turkish History Thesis, and finally the fourth volume, the book Tarıh IV, of the high school history book History of four volumes, of which its preliminary study was started in the year 1929 and published in the year 1931, will be examined within this context.