New Books Network Podcast

Middle Eastern Studies November 30, 2022

Protesting Jordan

Geographies of Power and Dissent

Jillian Schwedler

Hosted by Ronay Bakan

Protest has been a key method of political claim-making in Jordan from the late Ottoman period to the present day. More than moments of rupture within normal-time politics, protests have …

Literature November 24, 2022

The Cage

Fida Jiryis

Hosted by Yakir Englander

Ha-Kluv (The Cage) is a Hebrew anthology of selected short stories by Fida Jiryis, which she originally published in Arabic. The stories speak of the life of Palestinians in Israel …

Indian Religions November 24, 2022

Wonders and Rarities

The Marvelous Book That Traveled the World and Mapped the Cosmos

Travis Zadeh

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

During the thirteenth century, the Persian naturalist and judge Zakariyyāʾ Qazwīnī authored what became one of the most influential works of natural history in the world: Wonders and Rarities. Exploring …

On Religion November 21, 2022

The Magi

Who They Were, How They've Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate

Eric Vanden Eykel

Hosted by Gregory Soden

George Tyrrell insisted that the quest for the historical Jesus was no more than scholars staring into a well to see their own reflections staring back. Jesus is the mirror …

Middle Eastern Studies November 21, 2022

Assyrians in Modern Iraq

Negotiating Political and Cultural Space

Alda Benjamen

Hosted by Roberto Mazza

Today I talked to Alda Benjamen about his book Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space (Cambridge UP, 2021) Examining the relationship between a strengthened Iraqi state under the Baʿth …

Middle Eastern Studies November 21, 2022

Nomads in the Middle East

Beatrice Forbes Manz

Hosted by Maggie Freeman

A history of pastoral nomads in the Islamic Middle East, Nomads in the Middle East by Beatrice Forbes Manz (Cambridge University Press, 2021) charts the rise of nomadic power from …

Asian Review of Books November 17, 2022

In Asian Waters

Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokohama

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In the nineteenth century, one group of American merchants reported an odd request from the Vietnamese emperor. An envoy asked if the traders could help procure a commodity brought by …

Ancient History November 17, 2022

The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia

A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions

Ahmad Al-Jallad

Hosted by Maggie Freeman

The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions (Brill, 2022) by Ahmad al-Jallad presents evidence for religious identity and ritual practices among …

Christian Studies November 16, 2022

Bethlehem's Syriac Christians

Self, Nation and Church in Dialogue and Practice

Mark D. Calder

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Mark D. Calder's Bethlehem's Syriac Christians: Self, Nation and Church in Dialogue and Practice (Gorgias Press, 2017) is anthropological study of Syriac Orthodox Christian identity in a time of displacement …

Middle Eastern Studies November 14, 2022

The Love of Strangers

What Six Muslim Students Learned in Jane Austen's London

Nile Green

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh

In July 1815, six Iranian students arrived in London under the escort of their chaperone, Captain Joseph D'Arcy. Their mission was to master the modern sciences behind the rapid rise …

Ancient History November 14, 2022

God

An Anatomy

Francesca Stavrakopoulou

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The scholarship of theology and religion teaches us that the God of the Bible was without a body, only revealing himself in the Old Testament in words mysteriously uttered through …

Biography November 11, 2022

Egypt's Golden Couple

When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth

John Darnell and Colleen Darnell

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Two celebrated Egyptologists bring to vivid life the intriguing and controversial reign of King Tut's parents. Akhenaten has been the subject of radically different, even contradictory, biographies. The king has …

Economics November 11, 2022

Divided Environments

An International Political Ecology of Climate Change, Water and Security

Jan Selby, Gabrielle Daoust, and Clemens Hoffmann

Hosted by Sidney Michelini

What are the implications of climate change for twenty-first-century conflict and security? Rising temperatures, it is often said, will bring increased drought, more famine, heightened social vulnerability, and large-scale political …

Writ Large November 8, 2022

On Edward Said's "Orientalism"

A Discussion with Stathis Gourgouris

Stathis Gourgouris

Hosted by Zachary Davis

Beginning in the 17th century, European countries began colonizing countries east of Europe. They imposed their own ideas over local cultures and extracted free labor and resources. One way that …

Medieval History November 4, 2022

Don't Think for Yourself

Authority and Belief in Medieval Philosophy

Peter Adamson

Hosted by Jackson Reinhardt

In Don't Think for Yourself: Authority and Belief in Medieval Philosophy (U Notre Dame Press, 2022), Peter Adamson provides an answer to a question as relevant today as it was …

Jewish Studies October 31, 2022

A Vision of Yemen

The Travels of a European Orientalist and His Native Guide--a Translation of Hayyim Habshush's Travelogue

Alan Verskin

Hosted by Drora Arussy

In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his archaeological tour of Yemen. Twenty years later, Habshush wrote A Vision of Yemen a memoir of …

Urban Studies October 28, 2022

Refugee Cities

How Afghans Changed Urban Pakistan

Sanaa Alimia

Hosted by Tayeba Batool

Situated between the 1970s Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and the post-2001 War on Terror, Refugee Cities: How Afghans Changed Urban Pakistan (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tells the story of …

Christian Studies October 28, 2022

Kierkegaard and Eastern Orthodox Thought

A Comparative Philosophical Analysis

Ágúst Magnússon

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Today I talked to Ágúst Magnússon about his new book Kierkegaard and Eastern Orthodox Thought: A Comparative Philosophical Analysis (Gorgias Press, 2019). Throughout the years, there has been an extensive engagement with …

World Affairs October 27, 2022

The Age of Counter-Revolution

States and Revolutions in the Middle East

Jamie Allinson

Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon

The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented amount of protests for far-reaching social change around the world – from the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street to the protests …

Indian Ocean World October 24, 2022

Under Empire

Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945

Michael Francis Laffan

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi

Michael Francis Laffan’s Under Empire: Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945 (Columbia University Press, 2022) traces a tapestry of historical actors, empires, and ideas across the …