New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
Middle Eastern Studies November 25, 2020

Vision or Mirage

Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads

David Rundell

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
David Rundell brings to his book, Vision or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads (I. B. Tauris, 2020), a granular analysis and insider’s understanding of the inner workings of the …

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Indian Ocean World November 23, 2020

The Emergence of the Gulf States

Studies in Modern History

J. E. Peterson

Hosted by Yasmine al-Bastaki
The Emergence of the Gulf States: Studies in Modern History (Bloomsbury, 2016) offers an overview of the history of Saudi Arabia and the five Persian/Arabian Gulf states that emerged from …
Islamic Studies November 20, 2020

Minding their Place

Space and Religious Hierarchy in Ibn al-Qayyim’s Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma

Antonia Bosanquet

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
How was the relationship between Muslim and non-Muslim communities theologically and spatially imagined in the premodern world? How did religious hierarchies map onto notions of place and spatial distinction and …
Mobilities and Methods November 18, 2020

Beyond Exception

New Interpretations of the Arabian Peninsula

Ahmed Kanna, Amélie Le Renard, and Neha Vora

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Over the nearly two decades that they have each been conducting fieldwork in the Arabian Peninsula, Ahmed Kanna, Amélie Le Renard, and Neha Vora have regularly encountered exoticizing and exceptionalist …
Politics & Polemics November 17, 2020

Mythologies Without End

The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020

Jerome Slater

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
The history of modern Israel is a fiercely contested subject. From the Balfour declaration to the Six-Day War to the recent assault on Gaza, ideologically-charged narratives and counter-narratives battle for …
Third World Nationalism November 17, 2020

Making a World After Empire

The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives

Christopher J. Lee

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
In April 1955, twenty-nine countries from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East came together for a diplomatic conference in Bandung, Indonesia, intending to define the direction of the postcolonial world …
Middle Eastern Studies November 12, 2020

Muhammad's Body

Baraka Networks and the Prophetic Assemblage

Michael Muhammad Knight

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Muhammad's Body: Baraka Networks and the Prophetic Assemblage by Michael Muhammad Knight (UNC Press, 2020) joins the emerging subfield of literature in Islamic Studies exploring embodiment and materiality as concepts …
European Studies November 11, 2020

Jerusalem Afflicted

Quaresmius, Spain, and the Idea of a 17th-century Crusade

Ken Tully and Chad Leahy

Hosted by Elizabeth Spragins
On Good Friday, 1626, Franciscus Quaresmius delivered a sermon in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem calling on King Philip IV of Spain to undertake a crusade to …
Middle Eastern Studies November 10, 2020

Oilcraft

The Myths of Scarcity and Security That Haunt U.S. Energy Policy

Robert Vitalis

Hosted by Nancy Ko
We've heard and rehearsed the conventional wisdom about oil: that the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf is what guarantees access to this strategic resource; that the "special" relationship …
Middle Eastern Studies November 9, 2020

Ibn Taymiyya

Jon Hoover

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Ibn Taymiyya is one of the most prolific and influential Islamic thinkers to date, and was even the only pre-modern Muslim author cited in the 9/11 Report. His supporters and …
Indian Ocean World November 9, 2020

Pearls, People, and Power

Pearling and Indian Ocean Worlds

Pedro Machado

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Pearls, People, and Power: Pearling and Indian Ocean Worlds (Ohio University Press, 2020), co-edited by Pedro Machado, Joseph Christensen, Steve Mullins) is the first book to examine the trade, distribution …
Middle Eastern Studies November 6, 2020

Return to Ruin

Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia

Zainab Saleh

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraqis abroad, hoping to return one day to a better Iraq, became uncertain exiles. Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia (Stanford …
Islamic Studies November 6, 2020

Faces of Muhammad

Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today

John Tolan

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
John Tolan’s latest book Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today (Princeton UP, 2019) is a fascinating and rich survey of …
Israel Studies November 5, 2020

Between Dixie and Zion

Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel

Walker Robins

Hosted by Lane Davis
In Between Dixie and Zion: Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel (University of Alabama Press, 2020), Walker Robins explores how Southern Baptists engaged what was called the “Palestine question”: whether …
Middle Eastern Studies November 3, 2020

Masters of the Pearl

A History of Qatar

Michael Quentin Morton

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
History is not the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of young, energy-rich monarchies of the Gulf that often punch above their weight in geopolitics and geoeconomics …
Islamic Studies October 30, 2020

Interrogating Secularism

Race and Religion in Arab Transnational Art and Literature

Danielle Haque

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In many popular accounts of contemporary “Western” society there is an inherent contradiction between the principles underlying liberal secularism and Islam. This type of binary discourse about “religion” and “secular” …
Indian Ocean World October 29, 2020

Tell This in my Memory

Stories of Enslavement from Egypt, Sudan, and the Ottoman Empire

Eve M. Troutt Powell

Hosted by Yasmine al-Bastaki
Tell This in my Memory : Stories of Enslavement from Egypt, Sudan, and the Ottoman Empire (Stanford University Press) is a study of slavery, liberation, and remembrance between the nineteenth …
French Studies October 27, 2020

Mobilizing Memory

The Great War and the Language of Politics in Colonial Algeria, 1918-1939

Dónal Hassett

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Dónal Hassett’s Mobilizing Memory: The Great War and the Language of Politics in Colonial Algeria, 1918-1939 (Oxford UP, 2019) is at once a history of colonialism and of the “Great …
Middle Eastern Studies October 27, 2020

Crafting Masculine Selves

Culture, War, and Psychodynamics in Afghanistan

Andrea Chiovenda

Hosted by Jeffrey Bristol
Against the backdrop of four decades of continuous conflict in Afghanistan, the Pashtun male protagonists of this book carry out their daily effort to internally negotiate, adjust (if at all) …
Chinese Studies October 16, 2020

Critical Reflections on China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Alan Chong and Quang Min Pham

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Political scientists Alan Chong and Quang Min Pham bring with their edited volume, Critical Reflections on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), originality as well as dimensions and …