A detailed study of the Turkish secret society known as CUP (Committee of Union and Progress), a movement which continues to influence the thinking of Turkish intellectuals. It also provides insights into diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe in the early 20th century.

In 1908, the revolution of the Young Turks deposed the dictatorship of Sultan Abdulhamid II and established a constitutional regime that became the major ruling power in the Ottoman empire. But the seeds of this revolution went back much farther: to 1889, when the secret Young Turk organization the Committee of Union and Progress was formed. M. Sukru Hanioglu's landmark work is the story of the power struggles within the CUP and its impact on twentieth-century Turkish politics and culture. At once an in-depth history of an ideological movement and a study of the diplomatic relationships between the Ottoman Empire and the so-called great powers of Europe at the turn of the century, it analyzes the influence of European political thought on the CUP conspirators, and traces their influence on generations of Turkish intellectual and political life.

This is a highly original and meticulously researched account of what has been hitherto a somewhat neglected subject ... Hanioglu has produced a balanced and sophisticated account of Young Turk thought which is unlikely to be superseded for many years. It will be indispensable to anyone working on the political, intellectual or social history of the late Ottoman empire and the Turkish republic.