Visions of Raising the Republic in the Province: A Discursive Reading of Childhood, Motherhood, and National Ideals in the Gediz Journal of Early Republican Manisa

Childhood, as a socially constructed category, is shaped by specific cultural, political, and historical contexts, and is neither static nor universal. In many nation-building efforts, including that of early Republican Turkey, it has been redefined as a discursive tool to serve the needs of the regime. This study focuses on how childhood was constructed and what values were ascribed to children in the Western Anatolian town of Manisa. Using thematic and discourse analysis and adopting a micro-historical lens, it examines how the Gediz Journal of the Manisa People’s House (1937–1950) engaged with dominant narratives of childhood. The main findings of the study are as follows: 1) the issue of children in Gediz intersected with broader ideological goals of modernization, nation-building, population politics, and gender roles, and it was articulated in ways that reflected these agendas; 2) Children were depicted as vital assets to the nation-state and imagined as future citizens entrusted with ensuring its continuity; 3) The family and the school emerged as the two primary institutions tasked with this mission, with mothers positioned as the principal nurturers expected to raise the future of the Republic; 4) While the journal localized many topics—such as Manisa’s history, folklore, urban development, and socio-economic concerns—its treatment of children reflected a top-down, state-driven narrative. Emphasis was placed on children’s physical, mental, and moral development to safeguard the Republic’s ideological continuity through the combined efforts of the family, especially mothers, and the state. By centering its analysis on childhood, this article questions the descriptive tendency prevalent in existing scholarship on People’s House publications by focusing specifically on the Gediz journal. It underscores the need for critically engaged and localized readings to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how nation-building, modernity, and gender norms were constructed and disseminated in the early Republican period.