A white paradise, American wonderland: an occidental journey of Turkish travelers

Abstract

The goal of this thesis is to examine the journeys of Turkish travelers to the United States in 1940s and 1970s within the framework of Turkish occidentalism.1 Earlier works about occidentalism and especially Turkish occidentalism will serve to illuminate the accounts of the travelers. The biographical sketches on these travelers and the interactions and relations between the United States and Turkey will be briefly introduced as well. The periodization is deliberate because it was during the advent of Turkish membership in NATO that contributed to perhaps the closest relations between the United States and Turkey, before the escalation of the Cyprus crisis. These Turkish travelers’ observations, analyses, notions, and arguments about American Society through materialism and consumerism, religion, and African-Americans, and American development through colleges/universities, skyscrapers and highways, and urban workers will be the focal points.