Following a long debate on alphabet reform by (Ottoman) Turkish intellectuals and modernist reformers since the Tanzimat period, the Turkish parliament adopted a new Latin based alphabet in November 1928 to replace the Arabic letters "in order to save the nation from illiteracy and ignorance". The Alphabet reform left the state and its citizens with an enormous task of teaching and learning a new script. Given high levels of illiteracy--the overall literacy rate was 8.16 % according to the 1927 census--for the majority of the citizens learning the new alphabet meant learning to read and write for the first time. While the regular school system assumed the task of teaching children the new script, shortly after the Alphabet law the state embarked upon a comprehensive education project under the title Millet Mektepleri, or Nation's Schools, that aimed at spreading literacy and teaching the new alphabet to adult Turkish citizens simultaneously. Drawing on the existing scholarship (such as Bilal simiir's) as well as memoirs, oral interviews -which I conducted in 2002 and 2003--and periodical publications such as the Ministry of Education's weekly magazine Halk, this paper explores the goals, the practice, and the consequences of the Millet Mektepleri. It argues that in addition to the primary goal of mass literacy, which was a fundamental requirement for the nation's progress and its march toward modernity, the Nation's Schools contributed towards the creation of a national culture in a number of ways: These classes would teach citizens about subjects such as history, geography and citizenship. Increased literacy in the new alphabet would also work towards the elimination of regional dialects and the building of a shared colloquial Turkish. Furthermore, Millet Mektepleri would also help toward the dissemination of Turkish as a spoken language among communities that did not speak Turkish at a time when the ability and willingness to speak Turkish became an important requirement for full membership in the Turkish national community. The paper also examines the constraints and the failures of the Millet Mektepleri program, especially in its attempts to reach women citizens, who had to be educated in order to be able to fully participate in national life.