Both a symbol of the Mubarak government’s power and a component in its construction of national identity, football served as fertile ground for Egyptians to confront the regime’s overthrow during the 2011 revolution. With the help of the state, appreciation for football in Egypt peaked in the late 2000s. Yet after Mubarak fell, fans questioned their previous ... Show More
Nov 22
Faisal Devji, "Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam" (Yale UP, 2025)
Faisal Devji's Waning Crescent: The Rise and Fall of Global Islam (Yale UP, 2025) is a compelling examination of the rise of Islam as a global historical actor. Until the nineteenth century, Islam was variously understood as a set of beliefs and practices. But after Muslims began ... Show More
1h 4m
Nov 21
Killian Clarke, "Return of Tyranny: Why Counterrevolutions Emerge and Succeed" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Why do some revolutions fail and succumb to counterrevolutions, whereas others go on to establish durable rule?
Marshalling original data on counterrevolutions worldwide since 1900 and new evidence from the reversal of Egypt's 2011 revolution, in Return of Tyranny: Why Counterre ... Show More
1h 5m
Nov 14
Basit Kareem Iqbal, "The Dread Heights: Tribulation and Refuge after the Syrian Revolution" (Fordham UP, 2025)
Basit Kareem Iqbal's new book The Dread Heights: Tribulation and Refuge after the Syrian Revolution (Fordham UP, 2025) uses ethnographic scenes from Jordan and Canada to contextualize the role of Muslim charities and community organizations that support displaced refugees from t ... Show More
1h 16m
May 2024
336. La politisation du sport (les mercredis des révolutions), avec Jérôme Latta et François Da Rocha Carneiro
Séance du mercredi 15 mai 2024 pour la 7e saison des “mercredis des révolutions”, l’Université populaire de la société d’histoire de 1848 à la mairie du XVIIIe arrondissement de Paris, en partenariat avec Mediapart, Politis et Paroles d’histoire. Les Jeux Olympiques de Paris, je ... Show More
1h 15m
May 2023
326: The Year of Revolutions: 1848
Few years in European History saw as much change and turmoil as 1848: across the continent, from Vienna to Paris to Palermo, mass protests took place, catching the old elites by surprise. The political order that stood strong since the defeat of Napoleon fell aside, making way fo ... Show More
59m 2s
Nov 2020
Paul Jankowski, "All Against All: The Long Winter of 1933 and the Origins of the Second World War" (Harper, 2020)
In his latest monograph, All Against All: The Long Winter of 1933 and The Origins of the Second World War (Harper, 2020), Professor Paul Jankowski (Brandeis University) provides a wide-angled account of a critical period of world history, the interwar years, in which the world tr ... Show More
50m 20s
Nov 2022
Uruguay 1930: The first football World Cup
As the spotlight falls on Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, we tell the story of how the world's biggest sporting spectacle began, in Uruguay in 1930. How did a small South American nation of just two million people, thousands of miles from football's centre of power in Europe, ... Show More
43m 23s
Apr 2021
Michael Wheeler, "The Athenaeum: More Than Just Another London Club" (Yale UP, 2020)
When it was founded in 1824, the Athenæum broke the mold. Unlike in other preeminent clubs, its members were chosen on the basis of their achievements rather than on their background or political affiliation. Public rather than private life dominated the agenda. The club, with it ... Show More
53m 37s
Jul 2018
Soccer and Repression: 1978 and the World Cup in Argentina
The story of the 1978 World Cup, a cautionary tale about democracy. The world spotlight on the junta that controlled Argentina that year helped focus some attention on the plight of the victims of a vicious dictatorship, but locally, may have enhanced support for the regime. We t ... Show More
48m 24s