Tocqueville's juxtaposition of aristocracy and democracy as the regimes characteristic of different historical periods gives rise to the question whether he accepts or rejects the category of human nature. In the juxtaposition of the distinct “worlds” of aristocracy and democracy and their respective conceptions of “man,” some perceive an implicit rejection of the idea of a universal human nature. Others, however, see an attempt to portray human nature comprehensively by highlighting the truth of both aristocratic inequality and democratic equality. While generally endorsing this latter interpretation, the essay maintains that most of its variants are too “democratic” in two respects. First, they underestimate the difficulties Tocqueville must confront in establishing the naturalness of the equality principle, and second, they wrongly insist that he understands nature to privilege the democratic principle. Tocqueville ultimately defends the naturalness of equality, but his claims about the greater justice of the equality principle should be understood as rhetorical rather than as reflective of his conclusions about nature.

The retaking of Gezi Park by the Turkish police began on June 11, 2013. The government's aim was to “clear banners from the Atatürk Cultural Centre and the statue of Atatürk.” The center, built in Istanbul's Taksim square in the 1960s, in order to advertise the Western identity of the new Republic, after a military coup, is eventually to be replaced as part of urban redevelopment schemes. Whether Atatürk's general legacy is secure in contemporary Turkey is open to debate. The electoral victory of the AKP party in 2002 had weakened the ability of the secular elite to prevent change. Many Gezi Park protestors saw the AKP's legislation as a growing threat to their lifestyles. Yet the AKP's victory was also seen as a vindication of democracy, and it look little time before a “Turkish model” began to be promoted for the Middle East. The Gezi Park protests raise the question of what really has changed since 2002. This article discusses three books. The first studies Atatürk's ideas. The second, focused more on popular culture, traces changes in identities. The third discusses change in the state-society relationship. The concluding section relates them to the question of democracy in Turkey.

The fiftieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 2013 was commemorated by countless television documentaries recalling the shock and horror of the news from Dealey Plaza. The anniversary also led to the publication of scores of additional books on John F. Kennedy's life and death, to add to the already existing list of over 1,400 titles.