In my historical research on the Islamist Entanglement, I have been examining the intellectual undercurrent that runs through Middle Eastern history during the Western Ascendancy of 1683-1839 and subsequent Western Supremacy over the region. It has been a fascinating project, with far greater rewards that I had suspected. Among the most interesting characters I [...]
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The United States is currently engaged in an effort to elevate Afghanistan to the status of exemplary moderate Islamic state. What exactly are the prospects for accomplishing this mission based on Afghanistan’s history and culture?
The first thing to realize when broaching this question is that Afghanistan is not a nation, and barely a [...]
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Cut through the clutter in the news concerning developments in the Middle East. Find out what really matters. Tune in to Powell History Recommends Middle East Watch. Each week, I’ll be monitoring the news for historically significant events in the region’s major countries, and passing them on to you, with brief commentary about why these [...]
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In my recent “roundup” of bloggers tackling history, I missed one who shouldn’t be missed. He’s one of my keenest and ablest students, ”SB”, over at One Reality.
His recent post Digging for Artifacts relates to Egypt’s backward looking culture and a theme I discussed in my fourth lecture of the Islamist Entanglement: Egypt’s “sense of nationhood.”
Ayn Rand [...]
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Cut through the clutter in the news concerning developments in the Middle East. Find out what really matters. Tune in to Powell History Recommends. Each week, I’ll be monitoring the news for historically significant events in the region’s major countries, and passing them on to you, with brief commentary about why these events deserve your attention.
Day [...]
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As a teacher, I can say with confidence that the best way to make sure you understand something is to write about it. The process of collecting, ordering, and transmitting your thoughts in written form requires a greater rigor that speaking. There’s a dimension of finality to what you write that forces you [...]
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There so much clutter in the news concerning developments in the Middle East. How do you find out what really matters? Tune in to Powell History Recommends! Each week, I’ll be monitoring the news for historically significant events in the region’s major countries, and passing them on to you, with brief commentary [...]
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In lecture 3 of the Islamist Entanglement, I presented the history of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. I introduced this topic to my students by explaining that Turkey is by far the most westernized of all the Islamic countries in the Middle East. As such, Turkey is a kind of historical prototype–an advanced model [...]
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Here’s a link to an interesting animated overview of the history of the Middle East from Ancient Egypt to the present, which takes only 90 seconds to watch.
http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf
A number of things are missing from this presentation.
One is evolution of the empires in question after they reach their height, such as the division of the Roman Empire, [...]
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Yahoo News has an interesting article that includes a very hopeful set of predictions on the outcome of the Iraq War, where, according to at least one Middle East expert, “A reasonable outcome would find something like 30,000 to 40,000 troops in Iraq for 25 to 50 years.”
An good parallel is drawn in the article between the Cold War [...]
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