This comprehensive book by John Freely (d. 2017), professor of physics at Robert College and Boğaziçi University, tells the remarkable story of an American institution that, from its origins in the nineteenth century, evolved into one of the most prestigious Turkish universities and a respected institution on the global stage. Its foundations were laid in 1863 with the establishment of Robert College in Istanbul—the first American college founded outside the United States—by Dr. Cyrus Hamlin and the philanthropist Christopher Rheinlander Robert. In 1971, the institution was transformed into Boğaziçi University, successfully combining the rich academic heritage of Robert College with the responsibilities of a public university. Through a series of reforms and institutional developments after the 1980s, the university gradually evolved from a small college into a dynamic and internationally recognized public university.

With a heritage spanning more than 160 years, Boğaziçi University has embraced excellence in research and teaching, participatory governance, and freedom of thought as its guiding principles. In this engaging and informative narrative, readers will discover how the institution overcame numerous historical challenges to become the distinguished institution it is so today, with a comprehensive historical review from its founding until the early 2000s..

Drawing extensively on the archives of Robert College and Boğaziçi University, and having witnessed half a century of the institution’s history firsthand, John Freely chronicles this transformation with clarity and insight. Both a scientist and a devoted lover of Istanbul, he explores how the institution has served as a cultural and intellectual bridge between worlds often described as “East” and “West.”