Myth of the Eternal State: Armenian Outlaws,American Outsiders,and the Ottoman Search for Order

Focusing on violent Ottoman contexts, this study explores state behavior, charts criminal taxonomy, and contributes to the state-outlaw paradigm an analytical conduit through which to explain state responses to the outlaws on discursive and institutional levels. At the center of this study are several cases that demonstrate the engagement of local outlaws with evangelical outsiders named George Knapp, George White, and Ellen Stone. It is my contention that, while mitigating specific activities involving these outlaws and outsiders, the state under study invents new traditions, empowers security networks, claims unaccountability, and executes double standards in pursuit of social order within its borders.