Works
Watch the promotional video for Turkish Kaleidoscope
TURKISH KALEIDOSCOPE
(Princeton University Press, May 2021)
It is 1975 and Turkey is on the verge of civil war. Turkish Kaleidoscope tells the stories of four unforgettable protagonists as they navigate a society torn apart by violent political factions. Against a backdrop of escalating violence, the four students fall in love, have their hearts broken, get married, raise families, and struggle to get on with their lives. But the consequences of their decisions will follow them through their lives. Inspired by Jenny White's own experiences as a student in Turkey during this period as well as original oral histories of Turks who lived through it, Turkish Kaleidoscope reveals how violent factionalism has its own emotional and cultural logic that defies ideological explanations. Drawn by the well-known Turkish artist, Ergün Gündüz.
Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks
(Princeton University Press, November 2012)
Turkey in the 1990s leapt to international prominence as an economic and political powerhouse under its elected Muslim government, and was looked upon by many as a model for other Muslim countries in the wake of the Arab Spring. This book reveals how Turkish national identity and the meanings of Islam and secularism underwent radical changes and asks whether the Turkish model should be viewed as a cautionary tale.
Jenny White shows how Turkey’s Muslim elites mounted a powerful political and economic challenge to the country’s secularists, developing an alternative definition of the nation based on a nostalgic revival of Turkey’s Ottoman past. These Muslim nationalists pushed aside the Republican ideal of a nation defined by purity of blood, language, and culture. They saw no contradiction in pious Muslims running a secular state, and increasingly expressed their Muslim identity through participation in economic networks and a lifestyle of Islamic fashion and leisure. For many younger Turks, religious and national identities, like commodities, became objects of choice and forms of personal expression.
This provocative book traces how Muslim nationalists blurred the line between secular and Islamic, supporting globalization and political liberalism, yet remaining mired in authoritarianism, intolerance, and cultural norms hostile to minorities and women.
Jenny's Essays
My reflections on places I have traveled, people I have known, and subjects that interest me, from the secret life of cancer to ice cream making. You can find the essays collected here:
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/author/jennywhite
The Winter Thief
January 1888. Vera Arti carries The Communist Manifesto in Armenian through Istanbul’s streets, unaware of the men following her. The police discover a shipload of guns and the Imperial Ottoman Bank is blown up. Suspicion falls on a socialist commune Arti’s friends organized in the eastern mountains. Investigating, Special Prosecutor Kamil Pasha encounters a ruthless adversary, Vahid, the head of a special branch of the secret police. Vahid has convinced the Sultan that the commune is leading an Armenian secessionist movement and should be destroyed, along with surrounding villages. Kamil must stop the massacre, but finds himself on the wrong side of the law, framed for murder and accused of treason. His family and the woman he loves are threatened. Exploring the dark obsessions of the most powerful and dangerous men of the dying Ottoman Empire, The Winter Thief also reflects the mad idealism of these turbulent times.
"White's best book to date..."
Get the book from: Amazon|B&N|Borders|Indiebound|Powells
The Abyssinian Proof
The Ottoman Empire is plagued by thefts of antiquities from mosques and churches that, within days, appear for sale in Europe. Among them is a reliquary, presumed lost for four hundred years and around which an elaborate and mysterious sect has grown. In Istanbul, magistrate Kamil Pasha is under pressure to break the smuggling ring as tensions between Christians and Muslims are aroused and riots feared. A mysterious adversary stops at nothing to get the reliquary first. With the Balkans aflame and Kamil’s personal life in upheaval, the search into the old neighborhoods where Istanbul’s crime rings reside may lose Kamil not only his position but also his life. Jenny White enters this time of distrust and turmoil, re-creating the gritty underworld of a dying empire.
The Sultan’s Seal
The naked body of an Englishwoman washes up in Ottoman Istanbul wearing a pendant with the Turkish sultan’s seal.
NAMED ONE OF TOP TEN FIRST NOVELS OF 2006 BY BOOKLIST
NAMED ONE OF TOP TEN HISTORICAL NOVELS OF 2006 BY BOOKLIST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA 2006 ELLIS PETERS HISTORICAL CRIME AWARD
"CSI goes Ottoman Empire."
Islamist Mobilization in Turkey
An accessible description of twentieth-century Turkey that explains the rise of Islamic politics in the 1980s and 1990s. Discusses Turkish urban life, the family, women and political activism, and new styles of veiling.
Money Makes Us Relatives: Women's Labor in Urban Turkey.
A look into Turkish family life and the effect of Turkey’s economic reforms on women in the 1980s. Shows how women's home-based production for the global market in the 1980s is viewed as an extension of their domestic work -- highly culturally valued, but poorly compensated.
"Portrait of the Scholar as a Young Novelist"
A humorous look at the adventures of a scholar turned novelist.