Gardner Thompson, Eugene Rogan

The Birth of the Modern Middle East

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Description

Discover how Western powers shaped the political and social landscape of the modern Middle East and the impact this has had on the Muslim world.

Afshin Shahi, associate professor in Middle East Politics and International Relations at Keele University, and Gardner Thompson, author of Legacy of Empire, discuss the factors that led to the Ottoman Empire’s collapse and how Western countries, particularly Britain and France, contributed to its downfall.

Colonial powers exploited the power vacuum left by the Ottomans, leading to the creation of artificial nation states in the Middle East, which often ignored ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries. Our panel will examine the legacy of Western intervention that continues to shape the modern Middle East and the impact it has on world affairs.

About the Speakers

Gardner Thompson

Gardner Thompson is a historian of British colonialism and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He earned a BA in History from Cambridge University, an MA in East African History and Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a PhD on the British Colonial Rule in Uganda from London University. Thompson taught History in Uganda, and then in London where he was Head of the History Department and the Academic Vice-Principal at Dulwich College. His publications include Governing Uganda: British Colonial Rule and its Legacy, African Democracy: Its Origins and Development in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and Legacy of Empire: Britain, Zionism and the Creation of Israel.

Eugene Rogan

Eugene Rogan

Eugene Rogan is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Oxford, where he has taught since 1991. An American citizen, he grew up in Europe and the Middle East, returning to the US for university study in Columbia and Harvard. He is author of The Arabs: A History (2009; 2nd ed. 2017) and The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East (2015). In 2017 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.