Ottoman Children and Youth during World War I

A Cultural History of Youth in the Modern Age

“…Young people were targeted and used in a variety of ways during and after wars by being displaced, being configured as particular moral or emotional symbols, or being expected to perform important emotional labor in the relationships between either warring or allied nations or factions (Maksudyan 2019;Simonsen and Ericsson 2005;Vassiloudi and Theodorou 2012). During the Second World War, seventy thousand children and youth were relocated from Finland to Sweden and housed with temporary foster families whose language they usually did not speak.…”

“…Those laboring in the field can turn to a fast-growing historical scholarship for guidance. The literature spans numerous shelves: some works focus on particular wars, nations, and regions while others have a transnational or decidedly global scope (Honeck and Marten 2019;Kucherenko 2011;Maksudyan, 2019;Stargardt 2007). Theoretical reflections on the place of children and young people in history in general, which revolve mainly around questions of representation, identity, and agency, provide further orientation (Alexander 2012;Gleason 2016).…”

The history of public health in the modern Middle East: The environmental–medical turn

“…The situation was further complicated by what Uğur Ümit Üngör has described as a “program of demographic engineering” in eastern Anatolia, of which the Armenian genocide was merely the first wave, which made uncovering the depth of the impact of the war on civilians difficult because of the politically sensitive, highly charged debates over the fate of the Ottoman minority populations during and after the World War I (Göçek, 2006; Suny et al., 2011; Üngör, 2011). While the topic remains sensitive, the past decade has seen a shift as more scholars—both in Turkey and elsewhere—have begun to reassess the war's impact in Anatolia, examining the role that hunger, suffering, and disease wrought on the civilian population, particularly women, children, and orphans (Akın, 2014, 2018; Dağlar, 2008; Maksudyan, 2019; Metinsoy, 2017; Yanıkdağ, 2014). As in Europe, the widespread development and adoption of the fields of psychology and psychotherapy in the region are linked to the aftermath of the World War I (El Shakry, 2007; El Shakry, 2017; Yanıkdağ, 2014).…”

“…Jennifer Derr has also described how Egyptian agricultural laborers conceived of time as primarily organized around growing seasons (Derr, 2018). Although not patient-centered in the manner described by Porter, the performative aspects of medicine and health (especially relating to motherhood) have formed the basis for a number of studies describing how newly emergent middle classes were encouraged to adopt "modern" practices to differentiate themselves socially from the lower classes, who continued to utilize "traditional" practices (Baron, 2005;Chehabi, 2019;Efrati, 2012;Göçek, 1996;Jacob, 2011;Kashani-Sabet, 2011;Khater, 2001;Maksudyan, 2019;Pollard, 2005;Radai, 2016;Russell, 2004;Ryzova, 2014).…”