Visit New Books Network en Español!

New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
Middle Eastern Studies June 24, 2022

Nine Quarters of Jerusalem

A New Biography of the Old City

Matthew Teller

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
In Jerusalem, what you see and what is true are two different things. Maps divide the walled Old City into four quarters, yet that division doesn’t reflect the reality of …

Middle Eastern Studies

Subscribe:

Interviews with scholars of the Middle East about their new books.

Middle Eastern Studies June 23, 2022

The Fate of Abraham

Why the West is Wrong about Islam

Peter Oborne

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Peter Oborne’s The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam (Simon and Schuster 2022) is as much a history of US, British, and French attitudes towards Islam …
Middle Eastern Studies June 22, 2022

European Cultural Diplomacy and Arab Christians in Palestine, 1918–1948

Between Contention and Connection

Karène Sanchez Summerer and Sary Zananiri

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
European Cultural Diplomacy and Arab Christians in Palestine (1918-1948) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) investigates the transnationally connected history of Arab Christian communities in Palestine during the British Mandate (1918-1948) through the lens of …
Critical Theory June 22, 2022

The Homoerotics of Orientalism

Joseph A. Boone

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
One of the largely untold stories of Orientalism is the degree to which the Middle East has been associated with "deviant" male homosexuality by scores of Western travelers, historians, writers …
Human Rights June 20, 2022

A History of False Hope

Investigative Commissions in Palestine

Lori A. Allen

Hosted by Rine Vieth
Lori Allen’s A History of False Hope: Investigative Commissions in Palestine (Stanford UP, 2020) is a deep engagement with Palestinian political history through an examination of international commissions. Over twenty commissions …
Middle Eastern Studies June 17, 2022

'The House of the Priest'

A Palestinian Life (1885-1954)

Sarah Irving, Charbel Nassif, and Karène Sanchez Summerer

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
'The House of the Priest': A Palestinian Life (1885-1954) (Brill, 2022) presents and discusses the hitherto unpublished and untranslated memoirs of Niqula Khoury, a senior member of the Orthodox Church …
Middle Eastern Studies June 16, 2022

Media of the Masses

Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt

Andrew Simon

Hosted by Avery Weinman
Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt (Stanford UP, 2022) investigates the social life of an everyday technology—the cassette tape—to offer a multisensory history of modern Egypt. Over …
General History June 10, 2022

Dynasties Intertwined

The Zirids of Ifriqiya and the Normans of Sicily

Matt King

Hosted by Luka Haeberle
Dynasties Intertwined: The Zirids of Ifriqiya and the Normans of Sicily (Cornell UP, 2022) traces the turbulent relationship between the Zirids of Ifriqiya and the Normans of Sicily during the …
Middle Eastern Studies June 9, 2022

Argentina in the Global Middle East

Lily Pearl Balloffet

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Argentina lies at the heart of the American hemisphere's history of global migration booms of the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century: by 1910, one of every three Argentine residents was …
Ancient History June 8, 2022

For the Freedom of Zion

The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66-74 CE

Guy MacLean Rogers

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66–74 CE (Yale University Press, 2022) by Dr. Guy Maclean Rogers is a deeply researched and insightful book …
Ancient History June 8, 2022

Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity

Kelly Olson

Hosted by Reyes Bertolin
In Masculinity and Dress in Roman Antiquity (Routledge, 2020), Olson argues that clothing functioned as part of the process of communication by which elite male influence, masculinity, and sexuality were …
Middle Eastern Studies June 3, 2022

The Unsettled Plain

An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier

Chris Gratien

Hosted by Deren Ertas
In this episode, I talk to Chris Gratien, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia, about his new book, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier (Stanford University Press …
Middle Eastern Studies June 3, 2022

Zionism and the Melting Pot

Preachers, Pioneers, and Modern Jewish Politics

Matthew Mark Silver

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
Zionism and the Melting Pot: Preachers, Pioneers, and Modern Jewish Politics (U Alabama Press, 2020) moves away from commonplace accounts of the origins of Jewish politics and focuses on the …
German Studies June 2, 2022

Israel's Moment

International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949

Jeffrey Herf

Hosted by Nicholas Misukanis
Israel's Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949 (Cambridge UP, 2021) is a major new account of how a Jewish state came to be forged …
Grinnell College: Authors and Artists June 2, 2022

The Many Faces of Political Islam, Second Edition

Religion and Politics in Muslim Societies

Mohammed Ayoob and Danielle N. Lussier

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Analysts and pundits from across the American political spectrum describe Islamic fundamentalism as one of the greatest threats to modern, Western-style democracy. Yet very few non-Muslims would be able to …
Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast June 1, 2022

25 Million Sparks

The Untold Story of Refugee Entrepreneurs

Andrew Leon Hanna

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Andrew Leon Hanna's book 25 Million Sparks: The Untold Story of Refugee Entrepreneurs (Cambridge UP, 2022) takes readers inside the Za'atari refugee camp to follow the stories of three courageous Syrian …
Middle Eastern Studies May 31, 2022

Spacing Debt

Obligations, Violence, and Endurance in Ramallah, Palestine

Christopher Harker

Hosted by Mehdi Sanglaji
In Spacing Debt: Obligations, Violence, and Endurance in Ramallah, Palestine (Duke UP, 2020), Christopher Harker demonstrates that financial debt is as much a spatial phenomenon as it is a temporal …
General History May 30, 2022

Queens of Jerusalem

The Women Who Dared to Rule

Katherine Pangonis

Hosted by Albert Zambone
For nearly a century after the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, that ancient city became the nucleus of a several kingdoms and principalities established by the crusaders. At the political, social …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 30, 2022

The Israeli Druze Community in Transition

Between Tradition and Modernity

Randa Khair Abbas and Deborah Court

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Randa Khair Abbas and Deborah Court's book The Israeli Druze Community in Transition: Between Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge Scholars, 2021) gives voice to the Israeli Druze through in-depth interviews with 12 …
Nordic Asia Podcast May 27, 2022

Routledge Handbook on China–Middle East Relations

Jonathan Fulton

Hosted by Julie Yu-Wen Chen
Have you ever read Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises? When asked how he went bankrupt, a character replies, “Gradually, then suddenly.” In this conversation, Julie Yu-Wen Chen, professor of Chinese …