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125 Scholars & Counting

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  • History behind news program is available on Radio Public.
  • History Behind News program is available on Amazon music podcast.
  • Listen to History Behind News on Apple podcast.
  • History behind news program is available on Spotify.
  • History behind news program is available on iHeart Radio.
  • History behind news program is available on Sticher (Pandora).
  • History behind news program is available on Google.
  • History behind news program is available on Radio Public.
  • History Behind News program is available on Amazon music podcast.
  • Listen to History Behind News on Apple podcast.
  • History behind news program is available on Spotify.

Middle East & Africa Series

Understanding News Through History

In this series, I speak to scholars about Israel, Iran, Lebanon and Türkiye. As you will note, we have produced more episodes on Israel and Iran, simply because those two countries have been prominently featured in the U.S. news media. 


Currently, we only have two episodes on Africa. Nevertheless, we are committed to producing more episodes about the history of that fascinating continent. I am particularly interested in Africa's history because it's one of the regions that our mainstream news media covers and cares about the least. 


We have also produced several episodes on Afghanistan, which you can learn about in HbN's China and Asia series. 


I hope you enjoy these episodes. Listen, read and watch below. And, by the way, we love feedback. 


Adel Aali

HbN host & executive producer

 

Follow HbN on your favorite podcast. Click to select. 

We rely on your support.

We hope you are enjoying our program. And if you are, then please consider supporting us for whatever amount you like. And thank you. 

Support HbN

The History Behind News Program Experience

The Forgotten Prophet

Christian Evangelism In Antiquity Middle East

Christian Evangelism In Antiquity Middle East

Adel Aali, Scholar Unravel Middle East podcast host, interviews scholar aboutMani and Manichaeism.

Did you know that Mani wrote his own gospel? He performed miracles. And he claimed to be the true prophet - the final prophet! 

Manichaeism in Iran

Christian Evangelism In Antiquity Middle East

Christian Evangelism In Antiquity Middle East

Christian Evangelism In Antiquity Middle East

Did you know, that Nestorians were refugees in the Sasanian Iranian Empire from the Roman Byzantine Empire? 

Nestorians in Iran

Palestine

S3E44: Palestine's People - 1,400 Years of Pluralism and Connection to the Land

HbN Guest: Dr. Maha Nassar

Forthcoming book: Palestine's People (tentative title)


About Our Guest:   Dr. Nassar⁠ is a professor of Middle Eastern history and Islamic Studies at the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies of the University of Arizona. 

Her first monograph is titled Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World, and her forthcoming book is tentatively titled Palestine's People. 


In the news: Mr. Netanyahu announced that Israel will take control of Gaza's security - indefinitely!


In this episode (Nov. 8, 2023):  

 

  • Did Palestinians have a distinct identity prior to the dominance of this region by Arab rulers?
  • Were they called Palestinians? Was their homeland called Palestine? 
  • Were Palestinians considered Arab before the rise of Islam? 
  • What was the religion of Palestinians before Islam? 
  • Were the Palestinians who converted to Islam different ethnically than those who adhered to Christianity? 
  • From what period was the area called Palestine? 
  • Was Gaza a distinct subset of the province of Palestine? 
  • When and in what form did Palestinians establish a polity in this area?  
  • Was Palestine a province of other kingdoms or empires? 
  • How are Americans' notion of nationhood and peoplehood different than Palestinians? 
  • Are there Jewish Palestinians? 
  • Is there anything about the Crusades that changed the religious dynamic of this region? 
  • Do the Crusades provide us with any lessons for our current moment? 
  • Do we have robust scholarship into the history of the Palestinian people?
  • If you wanted our audience to remember just one point about “the history of the Palestinian people”, what would it be?     

Listen to Dr. Nassar

Israel

S3E42: A Medieval Jewish Kingdom Outside Israel? Jewish Diaspora - A History

HbN Guest: Dr. Howard Lupovitch

Author of: Transleithanian Paradise: A History of the Budapest Jewish Community, 1738-1938


About Our Guest:  Dr. Lupovitch is a professor of history and the director of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University. He specializes in modern Jewish History, specifically the Jews of Hungary and the Habsburg Monarchy.  He recently completed a history of the Jews of Budapest and is currently writing a history of the Neolog Movement, Hungarian Jewry's progressive wing. 


In the news: The Israel-Gaza War


In this episode (Nov. 1, 2023):  

 

  •  What’s the difference between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews? 
  • So, why didn't the Jews of the diaspora speak Hebrew? 
  • What is the story of the Medieval Jewish Kingdom of Khazar?
  • What is this Jewish jurisdiction in Russia? 
  • Why is the story of Jews in Spain the focus of so much attention? 
  • How did Jews end up in Poland? And how did they thrive there (relatively speaking)? 
  • What is so special about Persian Jews? 
  • How important was conversion to the Jewish experience? How does one convert to Judaism anyway? 
  • What did Jews call the countries in which they lived during the diaspora?
  • What are some legacies of the Jewish diaspora - aside from the horrific experiences of persecution and the Holocaust? 
  • If you wanted our audience to remember just one point about “the Jewish diaspora”, what would it be?   

Listen to Dr. Lupovitch

S3E41: Israel's Ground War in Gaza - Urban Warfare History, Military Tactics, Rules & Lessons

HbN Guest: Dr. Mary Elizabeth Walters

Author of the forthcoming book: Hospitality is the Law of the Mountains: The 1999 Kosovo War


About Our Guest: Dr. Walters is an Assistant Professor of Military and Security Studies in the Department of International Security at the Air Command and Staff College. She received both her MA and PhD in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 


Dr. Walters is currently working on an oral history project exploring Operation Allies Welcome, the U.S. military support for the evacuation and resettlement of Afghans spanning 2021-2022. Her second book project, Hospitality is the Law of the Mountains: The 1999 Kosovo War, examines how Albanians – motivated by the Albanian concept of hospitality – took strangers into their homes and communities and changed the course of the refugee crisis. 


In the news: Israel's Impending Invasion of Gaza


In this episode (Oct. 27, 2023):  

  • When did this term, urban warfare, enter our lexicon?  
  • Does urban warfare give one side a boost, an advantage that they might not have otherwise had in open terrain warfare?  
  • Are there special urban warfare military tactics?  
  • Does the U.S. military have special units specifically trained for urban warfare?  
  • You've conquered a city - what next? How do you get out?  
  • What are some salient examples of modern warfare?  
  • Are there rules of engagement when it comes to urban warfare?  
  • How do hostages complicate urban warfare?  
  • In history, do we have examples of urban warfare in which the dominant party refrained from bombarding cities?  
  • What lessons can we glean from the history of urban warfare for the potential urban war in Gaza?  
  • If you wanted our audience to remember just one point about “urban warfare”, what would it be?    

Listen to Dr. Walters

S3E40: When did Jewish people live in this land? Did they identify as Jewsish back then?

HbN Guests: Dr. Michael Ptylik

Author of:  ⁠⁠Imagining David, the Man and King Looking Through the Lenses of Archaeology, History and the Jewish Tradition, and⁠ Canaanite and Judean Cities of Lachish, Israel⁠. 


About Our Guests:  Dr. Pytlik is a professor of in Anthropology and Judaic Studies, Director of Judaic Studies, and Director of the Cis Maisel Center for Judaic Studies at Oakland, University, in Rochester, MI. He teaches The Archaeology of Israel, God Through Jewish History, Written Tradition of Judaism, Introduction to Judaism, and Monotheistic Mysticism, World Religions, Life and Legends of King David, and more.  Since 2009 he has organized and led a group of Oakland University students to Israel for a tour and excavation field school.  He is interested in the formation of the Israelite state, the development of the synagogue, Jewish Theology, Hebrew and the archaeology of Israel. 


In the news: Gaza and Israel - violence & war


In this episode (Oct. 20, 2023): 

  • From when were the Jewish people called Jewish? 
  • What was their land called?  
  • When did Jews form a polity? 
  • So, was it Judaism or Yahwism? 
  • When did Judaism become a religion? 
  • When did Jewish people begin to leave Israel? 
  • How much of the Bible about the Jewish people is myth? And how much of it is history? 

Listen to Dr. Pytlik

S3E30: Comparing Israel's Supreme Court to America's Supreme Court

HbN Guests: Dr. Guy Lurie & Dr. Amir Fuchs


About Our Guests:  Dr. Guy Lurie is a Research Fellow in the Democratic Values and Institutions Program of the Israel Democracy Institute... he is an attorney and holds a Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University. Dr. Amir Fuchs is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions at the Israel Democracy Institute. He holds a doctorate from the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a lecturer in the Politics and Communication Department at the School of Government and Social Sciences at Hadassah Academic College. 


In the news: Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition has passed the first reform law to limit the powers of the Supreme Court of Israel ("SCI").


In this episode (Aug. 4, 2023): 

  • Does SCI function under common law, civil law, Jewish legal traditions, or a mixture of the three? 
  • What if Israel's government doesn't enforce SCI's decisions? Has that ever happened? 
  • How can SCI render thousands of decisions when the U.S. Supreme Court only issues about 100 decisions? 
  • Is SCI a professional or a political institution? How does that compare to the U.S. Supreme Court? 
  • How the American media misunderstands SCI. 
  • What is SCI's reasonableness standard and why is it so dangerous to get rid of it? 
  • Did you know that Israel's Basic Laws, its quasi-constitution, can be amended by a mere simple majority of its Knesset? 
  • In the 1990s, SCI was the most popular institution in Israel. But that changed in the 2000s. 

Listen to Dr. Lurie & Dr. Fuchs

S3E14: Mass Opposition To Mr. Netanyahu's Judicial Reform

HbN Guest: Dr. Gideon Rahat

Author of: From Party Politics to Personalized Politics?: Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies


About Our Guest: Dr. Rahat is the Gersten Family Chair in Political Science and the Chair of the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research fields are comparative politics and Israeli politics. His interests include political parties, electoral reform, the personalization of politics and candidate selection methods. He is a Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.


In the news: Hundreds of thousands of protestors in Israel chanting "democracy or rebellion". Interestingly, both supporters and opponents of Mr. Netanyahu's judiciary overhaul claim they are "defending the soul of Israel's democracy."


In this episode (Apr. 14, 2023): 

  • Why David Ben-Gurion, Israel's primary national founder and first prime minister, did not want a constitution for Israel? 
  • A compromise: The Knesset will adopt basic laws and over time these basic laws will become Israel's constitution. 
  • When was Israel's Marbury vs. Madison moment? 
  • How does Israel's system of checks and balances compare to the United States? 
  • Why Israel's Supreme Court is the country's only real check on government? 
  • How does Israel's political spectrum compare to America's? 
  • Dangers of personalization of Israel's politics and how it compares to America's personalized politics. 
  • The prestige of the IDF in Israel's society. 
  • Social identity and religion in Israel. 
  • This is one of the most central crises of Israel - it's like war! 
  • What does political conservatism mean? Hint: real conservatives are not on the far right. 

Listen to Dr. Rahat

S1E16: Muslims & Jews - Their History of Coexistence

HbN Guest: Dr. Michael Pytlik


About Our Guest: Dr. Pytlik is a professor in the Dept. of Anthropology and Religious Studies at Oakland University, in Rochester, Michigan. He is the Director of Judaic Studies and the Director of the Cis Maisel Center for Judaic Studies and Community Engagement. He is also the Director of the Study Abroad in Israel: an archaeological field school and culture tour. 


In the news: During last month's military conflict between Israel and Hamas, we also witnessed clashes within Israel itself - between its people, between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews.  


In this episode (Jun. 4, 2021): 

  • Children of Abraham - common ancestry, common stories. 
  • Origins of Islam and what Muhammad learned from Jews in Medina. 
  • Jews under the Abbasid Empire 
  • Jews in Muslim Spain vs. Jews in Christian Spain 
  • Jews in the Ottoman Empire  
  •   Sufism and mystical trends in Judaism 
  • Solomon Schecter and the Cairo Genizah 
  • Records of Jewish life in Muslim lands 
  • A story of hope! 

Listen to Dr. Pytlik

Iran

S3E11: Collapse of the Persian Empire. Also, Are They Persians or Iranians?

HbN Guest: Dr. Khodadad Rezakhani

Author of: ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity


About Our Guest: Dr. Rezakhani is a lecturer and a senior research fellow at Leiden University. He is a historian of Global Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, with a focus on Central and West Asia from 500-700 CE. His research focuses on the Sasanian and Early Islamic economy of the Near East. 


In the news: At the Grammy Awards, Dr. Jill Biden presented the first ever Best Song For Social Change Award to "BARAYE", a song by Shervin Hajipour, who was arrested by Iran's regime. Dr. Biden stated that this "song became the anthem for the Mahsa Amini protest, a powerful call for freedom and women's rights"  


In this episode (Mar. 17, 2023): 

  • So is it Persian or Iranian? The answer: it depends. 
  • To answer that question, we talk about Germany and Deutschland. 
  • Were ancient people in Ukraine within the family of Iranian peoples?  
  • It's not the Persian New Year. It's the Iranian New Year. 
  • In 1926 Persia was officially changed to Iran. 
  • The Sasanian Empire - its concept of Eranshahr. 
  • Why Hellenism is not a foreign element in Iranian history. 
  • Talmud was written under Sasanian control in Mesopotamia. 
  • The myths surrounding the fall of the Sasanian Empire. 
  • Most historians have it wrong - Persia was not devastated by the war. Most of the Sasanian Empire was intact and economically viable. 
  • The Persians didn't lose the war with Byzantium. They lost their emperor. 
  • Muslims did not conquer Persia. 
  • The Holy Cross in Persia. 
  • Sasanian royal family in China. 

Listen to Dr. Rezakhani

S2E42: Iran - Dichotomy of an Islamic State Pretending to Be a Republic.

HbN Guest: Dr. Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

Author of: Islam and Dissent in Post-Revolutionary Iran


About Our Guest: Dr. Ghamari-Tabrizi is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, where he is also the Director of the Sharmin & Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. He has written extensively on the topics of Iran, the Iranian revolution, social theory and Islamist political thought in different journals and book chapters. Currently, he is working on a project on Mystical Modernity, a comparative study of the philosophy of history and political theory of Walter Benjamin and Ali Shariati. He is also the author of Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment, and Remembering Akbar: Inside the Iranian Revolution. 


In the news:  "Iran’s Islamic Leaders Face a Crisis of Faith as Protest Swell". See WSJ, Dec. 11, 2022.  


In this episode (Dec. 16, 2022): 

  • The Cold War was in fact a very hot war. 
  • How 80% of the income from Iran's national oil went to Britain. 
  • How the U.S. and Britain orchestrated the 1953 coup. 
  • This coup left a very deep mark on the Iranian psyche and denied the Shah's monarchy legitimacy. 
  • Just before the Shah was toppled, Iran had the 5th largest military in the world. 
  • How did the 1979 Iran hostage crisis happen? My guest knows this story, he even personally knew the student hostage-takers. 
  • Did America intervene in Iran's 1979 Revolution? 
  • Why Pres. Carter sent Gen. Robert Huyser to Iran.
  • Mr. Khoemini guaranteed that he was not going to dissolve the Iranian military and the flow of oil would continue to Western powers.
  • How the Shah's personality changed in the 1970s. 
  • Mr. Khomeini's background and rise to prominence and power. 
  • Mr. Khomeini had no idea what an Islamic republic would be like. 
  • Why Iranians voted for an Islamic republic. 
  • How the Mullahs copied communist constitutions to write Iran's Islamic constitution. 
  • How the revolutionary spirit of the Iranian people is different than other nations'. 

Listen to Dr. Ghamari-Tabrizi

S2E34: Iran's History of Hijab, Women's Rights & Marriage

HbN Guest:  Dr. Janet Affary

Author of: Sexual Politics in Modern Iran


About Our Guest: Dr. Afary is a professor of Religious Studies at UC Santa Barbara, the Director of the Iranian Studies Initiative, and the Chair of Religion and Modernity. She is the author of many books, including Iranian Romance in the Digital Age: From Arranged Marriage to White Marriage (Sex, Family and Culture in the Middle East). 


In the news: Murder of Ms. Mahsa Amini by Iran's regime for the alleged improper wearing of her hijab. 


In this episode (Oct. 14, 2022): 

  • In pre-Islamic Persia, the hijab was a status symbol - the richer the woman the more she covered her body. 
  • Even in post-Islamic Iran, some classes of women were prevented from wearing the hijab due to their class, e.g., prostitutes
  • In pre-Islamic Arabia, women did not wear the hijab
  •  How Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty, forced Iranian women to unveil 
  • Prior to cultural liberalization and women's education, most Iranian women got married before 13
  • The Shah's White Revolution infuriated the clergy and conservative Iranians because advocated women's rights 
  • Iran's two cultures - religious and modern 
  • Sex in modern Iran - are there any virgins left in Iran? 

Listen to Dr. Afary

S2E33: Who Were the Iranians of the 1979 Revolution?

HbN Guest: Dr. Naghmeh Sohrabi

Author of: Taken for Wonder: Nineteenth-Century Travel Accounts from Iran to Europe


About Our Guest: Dr. Sohrabi is the Charles (Corky) Goodman professor of Middle East History and the director for research at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. She is also a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. She is currently working on her second book, which is tentatively titled The Intimate Lives of a Revolution: Iran 1979.


In the news: After the murder of Ms. Mahsa Amini by Iran's regime, Iranians erupted in mass protests. This time it feels different. Could this be a revolution? 


In this episode (Oct. 7, 2022): 

  • What is a revolution? This was a question that my guest didn't like to answer in her classes. 
  • Was Iran's constitutional movement of 1905-11 a revolution? 
  • Pres. Carter's Dec. 1977 speech in Iran: "Island of Stability". 
  • Black Friday, Sept. 8, 1978. 
  • The many factors that led to the 1979 Revolution. 
  • Was it an Islamic Revolution? 
  • The Iranian Revolution wasn’t just about overthrowing a government. It was also about what it means to be a human.
  • Contrary to claims of modernization and Westernization, in the 1970s Iran was still a conservative society. 
  • Story of a young woman who drove her motorcycle at night to distribute revolutionary materials. 
  • For her research, Dr. Sohrabi asks Iranians of the 1979 Revolution "how did you become political?" 

Listen to Dr. Sohrabi

S2E25: Iran & America - A History of Failed Diplomacy

HbN Guest: Dr. Vali Nasr

Author of: The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat


About Our Guest: Dr. Nasr is a professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the Dean of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He served as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011. Dr. Nasr has advised senior American policymakers, including the President, Secretary of State, senior members of the Congress, and presidential campaigns. 


In the news: U.S. and European negotiators announced they had completed a text for restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, and that the ball is essentially in Iran's court to take it or leave it. See WSJ, 8/8/22.


In this episode (Aug. 12, 2022):  

  • America's foreign policy strategy in the Middle East was military muscle over diplomacy. 
  • The U.S. is not making long-term strategies. 
  • In 2003, Iran's Supreme Leader and government reached out to the U.S., willing to discuss a range of issues. So what happened? 
  • Today Baghdad. Tomorrow Tehran. 
  • How Iranian hardliners were proven right about America. 
  • Iranians joke about Mr. Trump's presidency. 
  • Why do we have peace with Vietnam, but not with Iran? Dr. Nasr's answer is brilliant.  
  • When the U.S. removed Saddam, the logic for having nuclear power fizzled in Iran. But... 
  • After failed diplomacy, the Iranian conclusion was that if we want the Americans to take us seriously, we have to build a much larger nuclear program. 
  • To Iranians, an international agreement is not worth the paper it's written on.  
  • The Chinese have an interest in keeping Iran on its feet. 

Listen to Dr. Nasr

S1E25: What Is an Ayatollah? Complexity of Iran's Government Structure.

HbN Guest: Dr. Vali Nasr

Author of: Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty


About Our Guest: Dr. Nasr is a professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the Dean of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011. Dr. Nasr has advised senior American policymakers, including the President, Secretary of State, senior members of the Congress, and presidential campaigns. He is also the author of  Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Middle Class and How it Will Change Our World; and The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future.


In the news: Mr. Ebrahim Raisi becomes Iran's president. Is he a real Ayatollah? 


In this episode (Aug. 6, 2021):  

  • How Pres. Ahmadinejad challenged the Supreme Leader's authority. 
  • Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, doesn't have absolute power. He rules by consensus. 
  • How Iran's government budget and financing works. 
  • Iran's complex government structure, including non-governmental bodies with much leverage over the government. 
  • Before the 1979 Revolution, Iran only had a handful of Ayatollahs. Now, there are many, most of whom haven't earned the title. 
  • How Mr. Raisis became an ayatollah quickly before his presidency. 
  • No! Iran was not a Shia country. In fact, Iran was the seat of Sunni scholarship. So what happened?  
  • In 1979, many clerics didn't think clerics should rule. So what happened? 
  • Mr. Khomeini's view of Iran's government was that of Plato's Republic. 
  • Think of Mr. Khomeini as an octogenarian Che Guevara more than an Islamic clergy.

Listen to Dr. Nasr

Other Middles East Countries

S3E19: Is Türkiye Still A Democracy? Atatürk to Erdoğan, Secularism to Islamism

HbN Guest: Dr. Sinan Ciddi

Author of: Kemalism in Turkish Politics: The Republican People's Party, Secularism and Nationalism


About Our Guest:  Dr. Ciddi is a professor of National Security Studies at Command and Staff College at Marine Corps University. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In addition, he is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 


In the news: After 20 years of wielding power, will Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stay at the helm after this national election? 


In this episode (May 19, 2023): 

  • The dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. 
  • How Atatürk took charge of the military and prevented the total collapse of Türkiye.
  • Ottoman Sultan declared Atatürk a terrorist, which he reversed later. 
  • Atatürk despised religion. His signature achievement, however, was to transform Türkiye into a secular society. 
  • Erdoğan was an anti-status quo politician - he was against Atatürk's vision. 
  • Erdoğan campaigned on a message taking Türkiye back to its golden age of the Ottoman Empire. 
  • Erdoğan's message resonated with devout Muslims who believed they were belittled by the government and the elite. 
  • How Erdoğan changed Türkiye from an institutionalized parliamentary system to a personalized presidential regime. 
  • Fox TV in Türkiye is like CNN in the U.S.

Listen to Dr. Ciddi

S1E35: Lebanon's Economic Calamity

HbN Guest: Dr. Ussama Makdisi

Author of: The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon


About Our Guest: Dr. Makdisi is a professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University. He has been a Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley, a Resident Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Berlin, and was named a Carnegie Scholar in 2009. He was awarded the Berlin Prize and was a Fellow at the American Academy of Berlin. His book Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East was the winner of the 2008 Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association, the 2009 John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association, and a co-winner of the 2009 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize given by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.


In the news: sectarian fighting in Lebanon and dire economic situation for the people of Lebanon. 


In this episode (Oct. 15, 2021): 

  • The region that is now the country of Lebanon, was part of the Ottoman Empire, with no distinct borders. 
  • Post-WWI dilemma of the French on how to form a government in Lebanon. 
  • Highly controversial census in 1932 - Lebanon's last! 
  • The census showed a Christian majority.  
  • Lebanon's complex sectarian government system. 
  • Lebanon's big mistake was not creating a secular system. 
  • How the Central Bank of Lebanon essentially ran a Ponzi scheme. 
  • The Calamity: Lebanese have lost their savings, massive inflation, no electricity, no fuel, no medicine, very little medicine, no functioning government
  • "Paris of the Middle East", and "Switzerland of the Middle East" - take these terms with a grain of salt. 
  • 1975 to 1990 civil war devastated the country. 
  • Hezbollah and Iran in Lebanon. 
  • Dr. Makdisi's father in Lebanon. 

Listen to Dr. Makdisi

Africa

S3E19: History of Sudan. A Country Once Classified As a Condominium.

HbN Guest: Dr. Christopher Tounsel

Author of: Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan 


About Our Guest:  Dr. Tounsel of the University of Washington an historian of modern Sudan, with a special focus on race and religion as political technologies. He is now working on his second book, Bounds of Blackness: African Americans, Sudan, and the Politics of Solidarity.


In the news: Widespread fighting in Sudan is degenerating into another devastating civil war. 


In this episode (Jul. 21, 2023): 

  • Sudan = land of the blacks. 
  • 500 different ethnic groups. 
  • Kush kingdoms as Sudan's narrative of nationalism. 
  • The original national anthem was called The Land of Kush.
  • In Nubia, women had important roles and enjoyed some power. 
  • What does a condominium mean? It means that Sudan was a colony of a colony. 
  • Egypt paid. Britain ruled. 
  • The Sudanese Mahdi was the late 19th-century version of Osama bin Laden. 
  • Northern Sudanese used to raid areas around for slaves. 
  • Britain's Southern Policy - two administrative areas. 
  • South Sudan exploded into a civil war in 2013.
  • Writing history is really tough when that history is evolving!

Listen to Dr. Tounsel

S1E28: Ethiopia's History

HbN Guest: Dr. Etana Dinka

Author of: Society, Revolution and Military Intervention in Ethiopian Politics


About Our Guest: Dr. Dinka was born in Ethiopia and teaches African History at James Madison University. He has written extensively about Ethiopia's history. 


In the news: Ethiopia's Civil War. 


In this episode (Aug. 27, 2021): 

  • Ethiopia's war was avoidable. 
  • How Ethiopia defies African standards.  
  • Why ethnicity and nationality are highly controversial issues in Ethiopia. 
  • How Ethiopia beat Italy in 1896 and did not become a colony. 
  • However, Ethiopia colonized other nations in turn. 
  • Italy returns - 1935-41 occupation. 
  • Ethiopia’s natural resources are immense. So famines are usually the fault of the government - either deliberately, or through negligence. 
  • Ethiopia needs to be saved from itself. 

Listen to Dr. Dinka

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