After years of fieldwork and interviews, Yavuz has rejected the predominantly essentialist readings of Erdoğan’s policies as reflecting his natural authoritarian personality or the fact that he always has been Islamist. In this work, Yavuz meticulously makes the case that Erdoğan’s personality, leadership identity and political ideology shift continuously. This book is a must-read for anyone who desires to understand Turkey’s greatest political crisis as we approach the centennial of the country’s founding as a modern Republic.

- İstar Gözaydın, the author of Diyanet,

At last, a meticulously researched and stylistically elegant analysis that neither sanctifies nor vilifies Turkey’s longtime, controversial leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Yavuz, one of the leading contemporary scholars of Turkish and Islamic studies calls upon more than 10 years of scrupulous research including a variety of revealing interviews with key personalities to present the most definitive personality study of this important socially conservative and populist world figure. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand Erdoğan’s personality and how it has evolved.

- Michael M. Gunter, Professor of Tennessee Technological University,

For nearly two decades, President Recep T. Erdoğan has dominated political life in Turkey. Celebrated by some for standing up for the common person and Turkey’s national interests, he is accused by others of establishing an authoritarian state and undermining Turkey’s secular orientation. Yavuz’s valuable study traces Erdoğan’s political rise, documenting both events and actors that influenced his development as well as how Erdoğan’s actions have fundamentally transformed Turkey. In so doing, Yavuz connects Erdoğan’s story to the broader fault lines that shape Turkey today. Part biography, part astute political analysis, this book is highly recommended for understanding the contradictions and complexities of Turkey under Erdoğan.

- Paul Kubicek, Professor of Oakland University, editor of Turkish Studies,