New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
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) …

Subscribe to

Middle Eastern Studies

on the NBN

RSS Spotify Stitcher Apple Google
Chinese Studies October 16, 2020

Critical Reflections on China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Alan Chong and Quang Min Pham

Hosted by James 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 …
Indian Ocean World October 15, 2020

For God or Empire

Sayyid Fadl and the Indian Ocean World

Wilson Chacko Jacob

Hosted by Kelvin Ng, Saumyashree Ghosh
Sayyid Fadl, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, led a unique life—one that spanned much of the nineteenth century and connected India, Arabia, and the Ottoman Empire. For God or …
African Studies October 12, 2020

The Red Sea In Search of Lost Space

Alexis Wick

Hosted by Ahmed Yaqoub AlMaazmi
The Red Sea has, from time immemorial, been one of the world’s most navigated spaces, in the pursuit of trade, pilgrimage and conquest. Yet this multidimensional history remains largely unrevealed …
Music October 12, 2020

Tehrangeles Dreaming

Intimacy and Imagination in Southern California's Iranian Pop Music

Farzaneh Hemmasi

Hosted by Aaron Hagler
Farzaneh is the author of Tehrangeles Dreaming: Intimacy and Imagination in Southern California's Iranian Pop Music (Duke UP, 2020). The title obviously refers the song "California Dreamin'," but in this …
African Studies October 8, 2020

Slaves of One Master

Globalization and Slavery in Arabia in the Age of Empire

Matthew S. Hopper

Hosted by Robyn Morse
In this wide-ranging history of the African diaspora and slavery in Arabia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Matthew S. Hopper examines the interconnected themes of enslavement, globalization, and …
Israel Studies October 5, 2020

Women’s Political Activism in Palestine

Peacebuilding, Resistance, and Survival

Sophie Richter-Devroe

Hosted by Josephine Chaet
Dr. Sophie Richter-Devroe’s book, Women’s Political Activism in Palestine: Peacebuilding, Resistance, and Survival (University of Illinois Press, 2018) offers an analysis of the forms assumed by women’s political resistance in …
Middle Eastern Studies September 28, 2020

Street Sounds

Listening to Everyday Life in Modern Egypt

Ziad Fahmy

Hosted by Alize Arican
As the twentieth century roared on, transformative technologies—from trains, trams, and automobiles to radios and loudspeakers—fundamentally changed the sounds of the Egyptian streets. The cacophony of everyday life grew louder …
East Asian Studies September 25, 2020

Cold Wars

Asia, the Middle East, Europe

Lorenz M. Lüthi

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
What was the Cold War that shook world politics for the second half of the twentieth century? Standard narratives focus on Soviet-American rivalry as if the superpowers were the exclusive …
American Studies September 17, 2020

Oil Powers

A History of the US-Saudi Alliance

Victor McFarland

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is a critical feature of the modern international system. It binds the global hegemon to a region on the other side …
Middle Eastern Studies September 15, 2020

Studying the Qur’an in the Muslim Academy

Majid Daneshgar

Hosted by Asad Dandia
“Consider the works of the renowned Nobel-prize-winning African American writer, literary and social critic, and activist Toni Morrison (b. 1931),” writes Majid Daneshgar. “Hers—like Said’s—are popular in the West and …
Central Asian Studies September 14, 2020

Afghanistan

A History from 1260 to the Present

Jonathan Lee

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
Jonathan Lee’s comprehensive study of Afghanistan’s political history in Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present (Reaktion Books) tells the story of the emergence and sometimes surprising longevity of …
African Studies September 7, 2020

Libya

Jacob Mundy

Hosted by Susan Thomson
Jacob Mundy is associate professor of PCON at Colgate University He’s written a great book titled Libya, published in 2018 in Polity Presses' "Hot Spots in Global Politics" series. Jacob’s …
Middle Eastern Studies September 4, 2020

The Tumultuous Decade

Arab Public Opinion and the Upheavals of 2010–2019

James Zogby

Hosted by James Dorsey
James Zogby’s The Tumultuous Decade: Arab Public Opinion and the Upheavals of 2010–2019 (Steuben Press, 2020) takes the reader on a decade-long tour of the Middle East as the region …
Indian Ocean World September 3, 2020

A History of Slavery and Emancipation in Iran, 1800-1929

Behnaz A. Mirzai

Hosted by Ahmed Yaqoub AlMaazmi and Robyn Morse
Behnaz A. Mirzai’s book A History of Slavery and Emancipation in Iran, 1800-1929 (University of Texas Press, 2017) contributes to the growing field of slavery in the Middle East is …
Middle Eastern Studies September 1, 2020

Money, Markets, and Monarchies

The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East

Adam Hanieh

Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon
When most Westerners think of the Gulf, the first thing that comes to mind is often oil. However, as Adam Hanieh demonstrates in Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation …
Indian Ocean World August 31, 2020

Islands of Heritage Conservation and Transformation in Yemen

Nathalie Peutz

Hosted by Ahmed Yaqoub AlMaazmi
Soqotra, the largest island of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, is one of the most uniquely diverse places in the world. A UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, the island is home not …
African Studies August 31, 2020

A Brief History of the Mediterranean

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Jeremy Black, the prolific professor of history at Exeter University, has published A Brief History of the Mediterranean (Little Brown, 2020), to offer readers an overview of this sphere from …
Middle Eastern Studies August 26, 2020

The Last Empire of Iran

Michael R. Jackson Bonner

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Despite the competition it posed to the Romans’ eastern empire and the longevity it enjoyed compared to its Iranian predecessors, English-language histories of the Sassanian Empire are few and far …