World War I in the Middle East featuring Dr. Eugene Rogan

11/15/20 • 49 min

By 1914 the great powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. No region experienced more change as a result of the war than the Middle East. The Ottoman empire ceased to exist after dominating the region for more than four centuries and borders were redrawn piecemeal by the victorious allies. This set the stage for the modern Middle East and all of the conflict that will follow, much of which continues to this day. To help explain we interview Dr. Eugen Rogan who is a Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford and a Fellow of St Antony's College. He is the author of several books on the Middle East including The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, which was An International Bestseller and Economist Best Book of the Year. His other work includes The Arabs: A History and Outside In: On the Margins of the Modern Middle East

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The Battle of Manila featuring James Scott

The Battle of Manila was fought by forces from both the United States and the Philippines against Japanese troops in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. The month-long battle, which resulted in the death of over 100,000 civilians and the complete devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific Theater. Japanese forces committed mass murderer against Filipino civilians during the battle. Along with massive loss of life, the battle also destroyed architectural and cultural heritage dating back to the city's founding, and Manila became one of the most devastated capital cities during the entire war. To explain we interview James Scott, a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, is the author of Rampage, which was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by the editors at Amazon, Kirkus and Military Times and was chosen as a finalist for the prestigious Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History by the New York Historical Society. His other works include Target Tokyo, a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist in history, he also write the The War Below and The Attack on the Liberty, which won the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award.

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The Cuban Missile Crisis featuring Dr. Martin Sherwin

In October of 1962, US spy planes discovered evidence of Soviet Missiles on the Island of Cuba. What came next was a thirteen days of confusion, backchannel diplomacy, and the threat of Nuclear War. But to understand the leadup to the crisis, one must look back at the making of the Atomic Bombs and the decision to use them against Nagasaki and Hiroshima which brought World War II to an end. It set the Soviet Union and the United States on a collision course over who could use the weapon most effectively. To help explain the crisis and the policies that led to it, we interview Dr. Martin Sherwin who is an author and historian specializing in the development of atomic weapons and nuclear policy. Along with Kai Bird, he co-wrote American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer, which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2006. In addition, Sherwin has advised a number of documentaries and television series relating to the Manhattan Project, including The Day after Trinity: A History of Nuclear Strategy, and War and Peace in the Nuclear Age. He also recently wrote, Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis