2015/07/01 by Vicken Cheterian · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Religion and Society Interactions #Soviet and Russian History #American Constitutional Law and Politics
paper · doi:10.1111/1468-2346.12350
openalex publication_date 2015/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Bedross Der Matossian brings a valuable contribution to our understanding of both modern revolutions and late Ottoman history. Shattered dreams of revolution provides a unique perspective on the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, which put an end to the long reign of the autocratic Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and marked the unravelling of the Ottoman empire. The book looks at the early revolutionary processes from the perspective of three ethno-religious groups: Arabs, Armenians and Jews. Der Matossian succeeds in presenting a complex picture, aided by his knowledge of several languages including Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew and Turkish, next to English and French, giving him access to a large pool of sources. The book starts from the perspective of the Ottoman provinces, and the reaction of various population groups to the 1908 military coup which restored the suspended 1876 constitution. The book studies not only the different reactions of minority communities to the revolution, but also major differences within each community. Initially, the mood was largely euphoric, while, at the same time, the fear of anarchy and lawlessness was present from the early days. The revolution promised to put an end to the sultan's autocracy and create an Ottoman citizenry based on ideas of freedom and equality. Yet the central argument of the book is that different components of the empire had different perceptions of what the revolution was about, and therefore also had different expectations of it. Attitudes towards the revolution depended largely on the social and political developments within each of the groups studied.