Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison explores how the United States has historically positioned Türkiye and Iran through an unequal logic of comparison — captured vividly by the Shah of Iran’s 1962 complaint to JFK that, “America treats Turkey as a wife and Iran as a concubine.” Drawing on sources in Persian, Turkish, and English, Gürel shows how U.S. officials and opinion leaders used comparisons to serve changing geopolitical aims, and how political actors in both countries anticipated, subverted, and reworked these narratives. Spanning the Cold War to the War on Terror, the book reveals that comparison was never just a rhetorical device—it shaped diplomacy, public opinion, and political resistance in ways that often escaped U.S. control.  

This event with author, Perin Gürel, is hosted by IHGC Fellow Chris Gratien, the Islamic Worlds Initiative, American Studies, and MESALC.  Registrants may pick up a FREE COPY of the book from Wilson 124 prior to the event.  Remaining copies will be available at the event. 

Perin Gürel is associate professor of American Studies and director of Gender Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her teaching and research explore the cultural aspects of diplomatic history, with a focus on U.S.-Middle East relations after World War I. She's the author of Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison: America's Wife, America's Concubine (Cambridge University Press, 2025) and The Limits of Westernization: A Cultural History of America in Turkey (Columbia University Press, 2017).