Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul Paperback – November 2, 2015

Charles King's modus operandi in history writing is deep research, tied to superb story telling by portraying interesting persons or momentous events centering them as the foundations for each chapter. He achieved this successful construct in his 2012 book "Odessa," he repeats it in his newest book "Midnight At The Pera Palace." Subtitled "The Birth of Modern Istanbul," the book's dust jacket cover showing a group of frolicking, tuxedo-clad men should not mask the growing emergence of a palpable ugliness in twentieth century Turkish history.The book's timeline starts in the late nineteenth century through the end of World War Two. King's random cameos run from the emancipation of women, Istanbul's jazz music scene, the influx of Russians post October, 1917, the political ascendency of Ataturk, the birth of socialist nationalism, Istanbul's web of spies and Turkey's complicated and obstructionist role in the transshipment of fleeing Jews out of Eastern Europe (Romania and Bulgaria) to Palestine at the late stages of the War.King delves into the back channels of twentieth century European history, areas not read in most books; Nizim Hikmet, Turkey's Marxist poet, the beauty, Keriman Halis, Turkey's Miss Universe of 1932, Ira Hirschmann, a courageous American meddler who headed up the War Refugee Board, and Angelo Guiseppe Roncelli, the papal apostolic delegate in Istanbul (soon to be Pope John XXIII, soon to be Saint). He recounts the modernization of the Hagia Sophia and the exquisite park which divides it from the Blue Mosque. His palette is full of these colorful stories; all describing the emergence of a new secular Turkey.As the book ends, he reveals the ugliness of Turkish discrimination against the Armenians, the Greeks and the Jews and its 1942 wealth tax against their property; against the Armenians, "232 percent of their property's real value, 179 percent for Jews, and 156 percent for Greeks while Muslims were assessed at just under 5 percent."Charles King, a professor at Georgetown University, is a superb writer, poetic in parts but always dispassionate and objective. The book has two important Istanbul maps tied to many of the events written about, a smattering of old black and white photos and a slew of interesting footnotes at the back for future reference.

Anyone who is in love with the "City of Cities" should not miss this book. The book perfectly narrates the best times of a great city at its best. All the same the book also forces the reader to compare the Old Istanbul with today's chaotic, unpleasant, horribly architectured, increasingly Orient-minded, often dangerous metropol with a massive population most of which are Turkish migrants from all corners of rural Anatolia.

The book is purportedly a history of Istanbul in the first half of the twentieth history from the vantage of a particular physical landmark, but that is really not a fair description of this work. Due to Istanbul's location and the march of international and Turkish politics the book touches a good deal on Western Europe, Russia/Soviet Union, Palestine, and the conversion of a city into a cosmopolitan center The chapters are arranged both chronologically and by subject very smoothly. A few Amazon reviewers found this book difficult to read, although that was not my experience. I had trouble putting the book down to deal with the inconveniences of eating and sleeping. It is well-written and deals with each topic separately and completely before moving to the next.It is an excellent book for people who have visited and enjoyed Istanbul, or those who have an interest in European history of that era, or those who have an interest in the escape of European Jews to Palestine, or those who may be interested in Leon Trotsky's time as Soviet exile in Turkey, or for those who may be interested in the sociology of a population moving rapidly into modernity. I recommend the book highly.

Having lived in Turkey for extended periods and having stayed at the Pera Palace more than once, I approached the book without much thought about discovering anything new. I was wrong. This is a brilliantly written account of the conversion of the Ottoman Empire into the modern republic of Turkey using the hotel as a touchstone illustration for the changes that came about. At the time it was built - when the first railway line reached Istanbul in the mid 1800s - there were many more Greeks, Europeans, Armenians, and others in Istanbul than there were actual Turks. The Empire ruled by the millet (now usually translated "state") system by which each ethnic group administered justice to its own "people," and they in turn felt no shared national identity with each other or with the Turks (a term then applied mostly to Anatolian peasants). By the time you reach the last page, you have a clear idea of the growth of the nation, the role of Turkey (and Istanbul in particular) as a haven for those fleeing their own countries (most of a chapter on Trotsky's refuge in the Princes' Islands), and later as an escape route for East European Jews fleeing Nazi extermination programs. (The later Pope Paul XXIII's role as Papal legate had a big role here.) All in all, one of the most informative and gripping books I've read in years!