Summer book recommendations

The summer is almost over, but I guess some of my readers have not had a chance to hit the beach, as I am still getting questions on book recommendations on Turkish politics and economy. As your friendly neighborhood economist, I am delighted to offer a few.

It is definitely no easy read, and you should definitely read it in the original German if you can, but Karl Marx?s ?The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon? discusses the French coup of 1851, when Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte assumed dictatorial powers. After reading it, you should definitely go through our Editor-in-chief Murat Yetkin?s comparison of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an with the man who became Napoleon III of the Second Empire.

Iraj Pezeshkzad?s ?My Uncle Napoleon,? on the other hand, is referring to Napoleon III?s uncle, the famous Bonaparte. As explained by William Armstrong in his recent review of the book in the Hürriyet Daily News, ?Uncle Napoleon? is a phrase used in Iran to refer to the belief that foreign plots lurk behind all bad events. According to Erdo?an and his phalanx of sycophantic advisors, the Jewish interest rate lobby, international media and great powers, not to mention mutants with telekinesis powers and Klingonians, were behind the Gezi protests.

Speaking of Iran, the book I am currently reading, recommended by someone whom I hold ?very dear? to my heart, is notable for similarities to Turkey, if nothing else. In ?Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran,? Iranian American Azadeh Moaveni, Time?s Middle East correspondent, returns to her parents? homeland to cover the rise of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The parallels (no pun intended) to Turkey, such as the regime?s use of unsustainable economic policies to garner the public...