Venise

New English Paperback. Pbo. Small 4to. (26 x 19 cm). In English and Turkish. 286 p., ills. Annual of Istanbul studies. No.4 / 2015.= Istanbul arastirmalari yilligi. No.4, 2015. The urban history of Istanbul holds several important breaking points. Tanpinar, for example, makes the following assessment on the rupture that took place at the turn of the 20th century: "In the fifteen years between 1908 and 1923, [the city] has completely lost its former identity. The reforms instigated by the Constitutional Monarchy, three big wars, a series of fires of various magnitudes, financial crises, the dissolution of an empire, and, finally in 1923, the adoption of a civilization at the verge of which we stood scratching our heads for a century, have completely eradicated her former identity." This radical change was followed by the onset of rural to urban migration. Today, Istanbul is in a process of transformation in which she battles her own historic identity. Istanbul Research Institute is carefully following this process. The Institute maintains its focus on Istanbul's urban identity through a series of exhibitions, conferences, and books. The latest issue of Annual of Istanbul Studies thus includes exhaustive works on the historic identity of the city.