Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) is best known as a poet and communist whose daring flight by motorboat from Turkey to the Eastern Bloc captured international headlines in 1951. One of the most important poets to have written in the Turkish language, Nazim Hikmet's dramatic life story is fascinating in its own right, but also intersects with the story of the broader twentieth century. James H. Meyer situates Nazim Hikmet within the broader context of Turkish communist "border-crossers," individuals whose lives would go on to be shaped significantly by their ability, inability, or need to traverse the frontier. Born at the turn of the twentieth century and coming of age in the early 1920s, the women and men from Nazim Hikmet's generation were the last of the Ottomans. Children of empire, they had grown up in an era of porous frontiers, but by the time they reached their third decade, these borders had begun to close. Drawing upon an enormous amount of previously untapped archival materials and personal papers from Moscow, Istanbul, Amsterdam, and Washington, DC, Meyer has written a biography of Nazim Hikmet unlike any other. A book of world history wrapped inside a life story, Red Star over the Black Sea shows how changing attitudes toward borders and the people who cross them impacted a late imperial generation all the way up to the final years of the Cold War.

About the Author
A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, James H. Meyer has spent more than three decades studying and living in the Turkish-Russian borderlands. After graduating with a BA in English from McGill University, he worked for seven years as a teacher in Istanbul. In 1999 Meyer returned to the US, completing an MA in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University (2001) and a PhD in Middle Eastern and Russian history at Brown University (2007). Since 2009, he has taught history at Montana State University. Meyer's first book, Turks Across Empires, was published by OUP in 2014.

Reviews
James H. Meyer has written a beautiful book...Thoroughly grounded in multi-country archival research, this book reevaluates the impact of Hikmet and his comrades and offers a fresh approach to writing a transnational history... intelligent and expertly crafted... * Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, Russian Review *
The book is a new biography of the great 20th century poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963). It draws deeply on previously untapped archival sources from Moscow, Istanbul, Amsterdam and Washington, situating him within a broader generation of border-crossing Turkish communists. * Turkey Book Talk *
Red Star over the Black Sea is an intelligent and expertly crafted transnational history. * The Russian Review *
Meyer's meticulously researched book offers the most comprehensive biography of Nazim Hikmet to date and fills an important gap in the existing literature. It is a solid work of scholarship and gives great inspiration to those intending to contribute to the aforementioned biographical boom in Turkish studies. * Erdem Soenmez, Middle Eastern Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9780192871176
Author James H. Meyer
Format Hardback
Page Count 400
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 952g
Dimensions(mm) 253mm * 180mm * 24mm