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Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire: Ottoman Westernization and Social Change, by Fatma Muge Gocek. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. vi + 141 pages. Append. to p. 143. Notes to p. 184. Bibl. to p. 208. Index to p. 220. $45. Reviewed by Jane Hathaway
Fatma Muge Gocek's second book is an example of the continuing contribution of social scientists to historical writing on the Ottoman Empire; at the same time, it reinforces and amplifies her earlier work, East Encounters West.' In Rise of the Bourgeoisie, the author argues that the rise of a Westernized Ottoman bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries caused the decline, or demise, of the empire. This hypothesis would seem to clash with the current output of Ottomanist historians, notably Linda T. Darling, who challenge the very assumption of decline. In the course of her narrative, the author switches to the less historiographically charged term "demise," without, however, directly addressing the issue of terminology.
The body of Gocek's book demonstrates that the Ottoman elite's adoption of Western, particularly French, merchandise during the 18th and l9th centuries generated a "bifurcated bourgeoisie." Military and civil service academies on the Western European model turned out an administrative bourgeoisie of primarily Muslim bureaucrats whose principal loyalty was not to the Sultan's...