Jul 15

Massoud Amin, "Both Your Houses: Iran, America, and the Wages of Unchecked Power" (Wisdom Editions, 2026)

In Both Your Houses: Iran, America, and the Wages of Unchecked Power (Wisdom Editions, 2026), Massoud Amin confronts the war between Iran, Israel, and the United States, and the civilians caught beneath it. Writing from a dual vantage as an Iranian-born American trained to see ... Show More

1h 12m

Jul 14

Thomas Smith, "The Fifth Crusade: A History of the Epic Campaign to Conquer Egypt" (Yale UP, 2026)

In 1217, the crusader states were in a highly fragile condition. The Fourth Crusade had failed, and Jerusalem had not been recovered. The crusaders now set their sights on Egypt. If the breadbasket of the Mediterranean could be conquered, long-term Christian control of the Holy L ... Show More

58m 36s

Jul 12

Sara Farhan, "Medical Education and the Making of Iraqi Doctors, 1869–1959" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)

Medical Education and the Making of Iraqi Doctors, 1869–1959 (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) by Dr. Sara Farhan offers a rigorous social and cultural history of the formation of medical professionals in modern Iraq and their role in shaping public health institutions. Tracing ... Show More

49m 47s

Aug 2023

Anthony Bigio on Gad Franco, Sephardi Turkish patriot in times of turmoil

Anthony Gad Bigio on “A Sephardi Turkish Patriot: Gad Franco in the Turmoil of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic” (Hamilton Books). The book describes the turbulent and difficult life of Gad Franco, a prominent journalist, social activist and lawyer in the late Ottom ... Show More

37m 7s

Jun 2021

Christine Philliou on reimagining Turkish history and the roots of political dissent

Christine Philliou, associate professor of history at UC Berkeley, on “Turkey: A Past Against History” (University of California Press). The book examines the life of the writer Refik Halid Karay (1888-1965), interrogating the shifting meaning of political dissent from Ottoman to ... Show More

42m 15s

Sep 2023

Spyros Sofos on Turkey’s many nationalisms

Spyros Sofos on “Turkish Politics and ‘The People’: Mass Mobilisation and Populism” (Edinburgh University Press). The book delves into the ambiguities behind the term “the people” from the late Ottoman era to today, and how religious, secularist, left ... Show More

26m 28s

Jul 2025

Bilge Yabancı on Turkey's civil society under siege

Bilge Yabancı on “Civil Society and Authoritarianism: Co-optation, Repression and Contestation in Turkey” (Edinburgh University Press). The book examines the transformation of civil society groups under pressure from mounting authoritarianism. Support Tu ... Show More

38m 42s

Jul 2024

Sami Kent on stories from Turkey’s first hundred years

Sami Kent on “The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey’s First Hundred Years” (Picador). The book paints a portrait of Turkey by combining accounts of key events with Sami’s personal reflections on growing up learning about his paternal homeland from afar, before ... Show More

32m 40s

Jul 2023

Şebnem Gümüşcü on the past and future of Islamism in Turkey

Şebnem Gümüşcü on “Democracy or Authoritarianism: Islamist Governments in Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia” (Cambridge University Press). The book looks in depth at how intra-party factional struggles were key in shaping the AKP’s authoritarian direction, while also comparing this wi ... Show More

44m 28s

Jan 2024

İlkim Büke Okyar on Arabs in Turkish popular culture

İlkim Büke Okyar on “Arabs in Turkish Political Cartoons, 1876-1950: National Self and Non-National Other” (Syracuse University Press). The conversation addresses how Arabs are typically viewed in Turkish popular culture, also examining the impact of the influx of Syrian migra ... Show More

32m 53s

Nov 2023

Sinem Adar on Turkey’s dilemmas amid the Israel-Gaza war

Sinem Adar, associate at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, on Turkey’s response to the Israel-Gaza war. The conversation builds on her recent article arguing that the crisis shows the limits of Turkey’s region ... Show More

35m 15s

Nov 2023

Cihan Dizdaroğlu on Turkey-Greece ties through turbulence and rapprochement

Cihan Dizdaroğlu on “Turkish-Greek Relations: Foreign Policy in a Securitisation Framework” (Edinburgh University Press). The book looks at how ties between Athens and Ankara have gone through various cycles of improvement and deterioration from the early Republic of Turkey to ... Show More

37m 34s

Feb 2021

Turkey: Adnan Menderes, populism, and history

Turkey and 50s Prime Minister Menderes, Erdogan today, and how history is used for political power. Matthew Sweet is joined by Jeremy Seal, Ece Temelkuran, Michael Talbot & Nilay Ozlu.Before his execution in 1961, the Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes saw Turkey admitted to N ... Show More

45m 4s

Anthony Gad Bigio, "A Sephardi Turkish P...