LAUSR

periphery, where the author traces the human geographies of the spaces of the Halkevleri through their cadre and members who coexisted with local power holders. The focus of the third chapter is on the patterns of participation in the Halkevleri and the close connection between the Halkevleri and their performance within the framework of the symbiosis of local elites with non-local state elites. It becomes evident that the nature of the relations between local power brokers and state officials was both accommodating and conflictual, and that the centre seems to have favoured co-option instead of confronting local power brokers. After this, the study brings to the fore the issue of consumption among members of the Halkevleri. Consumption is dealt with in three separate chapters, each dedicated to a particular topic. First, the chapter on coffeehouse practices treats Halkevleri as a space of socialisation where ‘social actors coped with novel habits, discourses and practices’ (p. 151). Second, the author takes up the understudied issue of Halkevleri activities pertaining to women. The ‘woman issue’ formed an essential component of the Kemalist nation-building project, but nonetheless women were largely excluded from Halkevleri activities (p. 153). Based on extensive archival research on complaint letters about incidents that occurred during dancing parties and theatre events, Lamprou brings to the forefront the tensions that emerged in those years, but he also points out that they were significant in terms of identity management, as they helped negotiate social identities (p. 16). The final chapter of the book deals with Halkevleri members from villages, revealing differing perspectives about the ‘peasantists’ and peasants alike. Nation-Building in Modern Turkey is an original, well-researched study that draws upon an array of previously unused primary sources on the Kemalist reform movement, and it presents new ways of thinking about reform in the early years of the Turkish Republic. By going against mainstream scholarship, Lamprou focuses on the social dynamics that were created by social actors and how these actors ‘consumed’ the state’s reforms. This compact study is truly a gem that deserves to be widely read.