E288 | The political, social, and cultural roots of the modern Middle East stretch into the early modern period of Ottoman and Safavid rule and even beyond. So how should we narrate the long making of the Middle East within the context of an ever-changing present? In this episode, we talk to Betty Anderson about the perspectives and practices that inform her new textbook A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rogues. We consider ways of organizing and thematically arranging the history of a diverse region over hundreds of years, we discuss the importance of bringing previously silenced actors and groups into the historiography, and we reflect on how the past decades of historiography as well as recent events have changed how we conceptualize prevailing narrative of Middle East history.
More at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2016/12/modern-middle-east.html
Betty Anderson is author of Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State, The American University of Beirut: Arab Nationalism and Liberal Education, and A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rogues. Her current project examines the economic, educational, political and social changes that have come to Beirut, Amman, and Ramallah over the last 25 years. At Boston University, she is director of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations.
Chris Gratien holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University's Department of History and is currently an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His research focuses on the social and environmental history of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. He is currently preparing a monograph about the environmental history of the Cilicia region from the 1850s until the 1950s.
CREDITS
Episode No. 288
Release Date: 11 December 2016
Recording Location: Belmont, MA
Editing and production by Chris Gratien
Sound excerpts: from archive.org - Harmandali - Recep Efendi, Cemal Efendi; from Excavated Shellac - Munira al-Mahdiyya – Aldahre Kataâ Awsali
Special thanks to Kara Güneş for allowing us to use the composition "Istanbul" in the intro and outro music
Bibliography courtesy of Betty Anderson available at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2016/12/modern-middle-east.html
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