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Midnight at the Pera Palace
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For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions - our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations - we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society.
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Publisher's Summary
At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock.
Yet in Istanbul - an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city - people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs - a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne'er-do-wells. During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII. At the Pera Palace, Istanbul's most luxurious hotel, so many spies mingled in the lobby that the manager posted a sign asking them to relinquish their seats to paying guests.
With beguiling prose and rich character portraits, Charles King brings to life a remarkable era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism.
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4 out of 5 stars
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars39
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Roger
- South Orange, NJ, United States
- 01-28-15
Captivating story of transition to modernity
This is not a history of a hotel, but King very cleverly uses the hotel as a lens through which to study the changes in Istanbul over the first half of the 20th century.
King presents a very thorough analysis, covering the social, political, economic, ethnic, religious and even architectural changes over the period, as well as what has survived all the changes. He neatly places these changes and continuities within the wider contexts of the old Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Europe and Asia. The book is wonderfully researched and written in an easily accessible and convincing narrative.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- The Louligan
- DC-MEM-SF-MD-VA-OAK-LA-ATL-PHX
- 01-18-15
INTERESTING SUBJECT - CONFUSED WRITING
There IS a kernel of an interesting subject here but the writing jumps around, making the whole book confusing. Grover Gardner is a great asset but not good enough to save this account. Here, again, Audible would benefit listeners by providing us with PDF downloads of accompanying photographs if available in the print version. With a rare account of a magnificent city like Instanbul, I'm sure the author gave the reader a visual glimpse of this colorful locale, along with vintage prints of Constantinople and its transition into Instanbul.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- L. Ford Ballard, Jr.
- Las Cruces
- 06-14-19
Interesting story of Istanbul in 20th century
Fond of these byways in history and loved hearing about so many aspects that I was unaware. A perfect book for my 90 minute morning walks. Thank you.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Sylla
- Shatin, Hong Kong
- 09-12-18
Rambling narratives
Really a collection interesting rambling anecdotes barely forming a coherent whole. Interesting but not that captivating.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Music Lover
- 07-15-17
haphazardly told history
this is a perfect example of how to take fascinating history and make it as dull and hard to follow as possible. The narration was abominable. Every Turkish word was mispronounced in the most painful way. I had to use your willpower to finish this book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Reid
- 06-25-16
good book dBm 9 smothers sign up for
I am in the hospital in Poland flat on my back I did not speak Polish I do not understand police TV this is been a wonderful movie for a person in my condition are not moving book and I can recommend it for anyone in a similar circumstance
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 04-21-18
a very interesting experience
I was searching for a book that would follow on from The Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler . This book was the perfect choice. The author deals with tbe dismantling of the Ottoman Empire The rise of Mustafa Kamal later to be known as Ataturk who dragged Turkey into modernity, Many other interestinb historical facts are dealt with such as Turkeys neutrality during WW2 Turkeys stance on the jewish people who were trying to es ape Nazi persecution, Many human i terest stories are interwoven throughout the main facts, I found this to be a very interesting read,