Middle East Audiobooks | History

Serhii Plokhy (Author), Leighton Pugh, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Wars of Ambition: The United States, Iran, and the Struggle for the Middle East

A gripping narrative history of one of the most complex and important conflicts in the world--the battle to dominate the Middle East regional order, from 2003 to the present When President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, America's influence in the Middle East was relatively strong, and adversarial states were largely marginalized and contained. The September 11 attacks upended all of this and prompted the Bush administration's bold plan to remake the Middle East through a war in Iraq. By bringing liberal democracy to Iraq, Bush hoped that the country would be a springboard for the spread of democracy to neighboring authoritarian states. Yet the vast disruption that the war caused created an opportunity for Iran to advance its own opposing ambitions. Iran strove to turn the Middle East into a bastion of resistance to Western hegemony and bring Israel to heel. The resulting clash over the future regional order not only intensified the Iraq war, it reverberated in states across the region. With the Arab Spring and the outbreak of new conflicts, the US-Iranian showdown became entwined in a much more complex struggle, one which drew in other regional and foreign powers that all pursued differing agendas. Emerging from the chaos was an empowered Iran and an unsettled regional paradigm in which the nominally pro-Western states of the region had begun to recalibrate their relations with Washington even as they welcomed deeper roles for its key rivals: Russia and China. In Wars of Ambition, Afshon Ostovar explores the evolution of the long and metastasizing conflict as it unfolded over a span of more than two decades. Not just a sweeping account of the dynamic interaction between America's Middle East policies and ambitious regional states on the receiving end, it also provides a powerful analysis of conflicting visions of the future that transcend regional politics. With Iran's rise and its revisionist campaign running in concert with those of Russia and China, the contest for the Middle East has become a microcosm of a larger geopolitical battle between those aiming to preserve the American-led global order and those seeking to overturn it. Ostovar's vivid history of this enormously complex conflict shows how the battle for the Middle East reflects the politics and dividing lines of an emergent multipolar world.

Afshon Ostovar (Author), Fajer Al-Kaisi, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Language of War

Brought to you by Penguin. ‘We were so happy and didn’t know it…’ A thirty-three-year-old writer lives in a quiet European suburb with his wife and his dog. His parents have bought an apartment nearby. On weekends they go out for brunch, cook and see friends. Life is good; it is normal. Then the invaders come. Language of War is about what happens when your world changes overnight. When you wake up to the sound of helicopters and the smell of gunpowder. When your home is hit by shells or broken into by gunmen, and you spend another night in a basement-turned-bomb shelter. When, even though you’ve never held a weapon before, you realise the only choice is to fight back. It is about things one can never forget, or forgive. Bringing together Oleksandr Mykhed’s vivid day-by-day chronicles of the invasion of Ukraine with a chorus of other voices – his family, friends in exile, those who have fought and have witnessed unimaginable atrocities – this book is both a record, and a reckoning. Haunting and timeless, it asks how it is possible to find the words to describe a new reality; how you can still make sense of the world when the only language you can speak is the language of war. ©2024 Oleksandr Mykhed (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Oleksandr Mykhed (Author), Greg Kolpakchi, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Endless Country: A Personal Journey Through Turkey's First Hundred Years

The Endless Country takes a journey through Turkey's past - the nation the author's father left decades ago and he returns to as a young man. It is not about Erdogan or Atatürk, the two towering Presidents who have book-ended that history, and at times have appeared impossible to escape. Instead Sami Kent's book goes deep beyond them, revealing a history as rich, layered and absurd as his family's favourite dessert, künefe: a shredded wheat pastry with a core of melted cheese, a topping of pistachios, and a drowning of syrup. From tiny weightlifters to the world's biggest prison, from a failed socialist commune to a wildly successful orchid ice cream, the book is a tribute to the sheer bewildering diversity of Turkey's past: its people, their ideas and their struggles.

Sami Kent (Author), Ojan Genc, Sami Kent, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Air and Love: A Story of Food, Family and Belonging

A gorgeous, evocative memoir of family, food and migration. As a child, Or Rosenboim's knowledge of her family history came mainly through the food her grandmothers cooked for her - bright orange carrots tzimes in buttery caramel sauce, round kneidlach balls in hot chicken broth, cinnamon-scented noodle kugel, stuffed vine leaves, Oshi-bahsh (herby green rice with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice), a 'Turkish salad' of red peppers and aubergine in tomato sauce or a slice of rich buttery almond and walnut cake. Or always knew that her family had a complex past, but it was not until both of her grandmothers died in 2017 that she reopened their recipe books and began to seriously explore the facts of their history - her history - for the first time. In Air and Love, Or follows the migration routes of her ancestors, conjuring the journeys they took and lives they forged in the turbulent and ever-shifting Europe of the twentieth century. This family history, of displacement and escape, is not an unusual one, but it is one often overshadowed by the massive political shifts and conflicts of the period. Opening in Samarkand and concluding in London, Or retraces a network of journeys via which her ancestors travelled to the Middle East and back, always in search of safety and a better life, and always cooking along the way. The paths they took were long established migrant routes whose existence paved the way for the Europe we recognise today - and yet these journeys, and this long tradition of migration, would now be largely impossible. The result is a beguiling mixture of history, memoir, travel and food, offering a fresh and deeply human retelling of some of the major stories of the twentieth century.

Or Rosenboim (Author), Or Rosenboim, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Destruction of the Old Ottoman World

Brought to you by Penguin. This remarkable book recreates one of the watershed moments in the history of the Middle East: the ferocious outbreaks of disorder across the Levant in 1860 which resulted in the massacre of thousands of Christians in Damascus. Eugene Rogan brilliantly recreates the lost world of the Middle East under Ottoman rule. The once mighty empire was under pressure from global economic change and European imperial expansion. Reforms in the mid-nineteenth century raised tensions across the empire, nowhere more so than in Damascus. A multifarious city linked by caravan trade to Baghdad, the Mediterranean and Mecca, the chaos of languages, customs and beliefs made Damascus a warily tolerant place. Until the reforms began to advantage the minority Christian community at the expense of the Muslim majority. But in 1860 people who had generally lived side by side for generations became bitter enemies as news of civil war in Mount Lebanon arrived in the city. Under the threat of a French expeditionary force, the Ottomans dealt with the disaster effectively and ruthlessly - but the old, generally quite tolerant Damascene world lay in ruins. It would take a quarter of a century to restore stability and prosperity to the Syrian capital. This is both an essential book for understanding the emergence of the modern Middle East from the destruction of the old Ottoman world, and a uniquely gripping story. ©2024 Eugene Rogan (P) 2024 Penguin Audio

Eugene Rogan (Author), Ronan Summers, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Brother's Keeper: Netanyahu, Obama, & the Year of Terror & Conflict that Changed the Middle East

My Brother's Keeper tells the behind-the-scenes story of how the American president and the Israeli prime minister clashed about peace, war, and the future of the region. Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu viewed the world-and especially the Middle East-differently. The US president wanted to end what he saw as America's perpetual war against the Muslim and Arab worlds, use diplomacy to bring about a Palestinian state coexisting peacefully with Israel, and apply his signature foreign policy vision to reward the Islamic Republic of Iran in exchange for the scaling back of their nuclear pursuits. The Israeli premier wanted his country to thrive without the senseless bloodshed of terror and violence, and he was determined to protect the Jewish state from threats of annihilation by a member of the axis of evil that would one day be armed with nuclear weapons. Netanyahu wanted peace for peace, as well as the acceptance of Israel as a full-fledged part of the Middle East. In 2014, during a pivotal summer of terrorist violence, a war in Gaza, and the advancement of a nuclear deal with Iran, the two men clashed, threatening the US-Israeli strategic alliance and the future of the region. The Middle East would never be the same.

Ari Harow, Ari Harrow (Author), Josh Bloomberg (Narrator)

Audiobook

The United States and the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory, Politics

During the first World War, over a million Armenians were killed as Ottoman Turks embarked on a bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing. Scholars have long described these massacres as genocide, one of Hitler's prime inspirations for the Holocaust, yet the United States did not officially recognize the Armenian Genocide until 2021. This is the first book to examine how and why the United States refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide until the early 2020s. Although the American government expressed sympathy towards the plight of the Armenians in the 1910s and 1920s, historian Julien Zarifian explores how, from the 1960s, a set of geopolitical and institutional factors soon led the United States to adopt a policy of genocide nonrecognition which it would cling to for over fifty years, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike. He describes the forces on each side of this issue: activists from the US Armenian diaspora and their allies, challenging Cold War statesmen worried about alienating NATO ally Turkey and dealing with a widespread American reluctance to directly confront the horrors of the past. Drawing from congressional records, rare newspapers, and interviews with lobbyists and decision-makers, he reveals how genocide recognition became such a complex, politically sensitive issue.

Julien Zarifian (Author), Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator)

Audiobook

Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and Beyond

An intimate account of the Israel-Palestine conflict and beyond, from one of Australia's most experienced foreign correspondents. Now updated with a foreword by Stan Grant and a new author's note. 'Lyons knows if you stand with the suffering, you're closer to the truth' Stan Grant, award-winning journalist and bestselling author 'A penetrating analysis of power with empathy for the human story' Sarah Ferguson, presenter of 7.30 Leading Australian journalist John Lyons takes readers on a fascinating personal journey through the wonders and dangers of the Middle East. In this updated edition, Lyons draws from his years living in Jerusalem to give context to the devastating war between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Having reported on the Middle East for three decades, Lyons has interviewed everyone from senior Israeli military and intelligence figures to key leaders from Hezbollah and Hamas. He's witnessed the brutal Iranian Revolutionary Guard up close, was kidnapped by Egyptian soldiers, and was one of the last foreign journalists in Iran during the violent crackdown on the 'Green Revolution'. He's confronted Hamas officials about why they fire rockets into Israel and Israeli soldiers about why they fire tear gas at Palestinian schoolchildren. Beyond the politics and headlines, Lyons explains the Middle East through everyday life and experiences: his son's school, the markets, and the conversations with friends on their balcony overlooking it all. Through Lyons' incisive reporting, you will develop an empathetic understanding of what brought us to this tragic impasse - and where it's headed next.

John Lyons (Author), Peter Houghton (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Yemen Model: Why U.S. Policy Has Failed in the Middle East

A close look at failed US policies in the Middle East, offering a fresh perspective on how best to reorient goals in the region In this book Alexandra Stark argues that the US approach to Yemen offers insights into the failures of American foreign policy throughout the Middle East. Stark makes the case that despite often being drawn into conflicts within Yemen, the United States has not achieved its policy goals because it has narrowly focused on counterterrorism and regional geopolitical competition rather than on the well-being of Yemenis themselves. She offers recommendations designed to reorient US policy in the Middle East in pursuit of US national security interests and to support the people of these countries in their efforts to make their own communities safe, secure, and prosperous.

Alexandra Stark (Author), Emily Durante (Narrator)

Audiobook

Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream

Award-winning author Francine Klagsbrun reveals the complex life and work of Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah and a Zionist trailblazer Henrietta Szold (1860-1945) is renowned as the founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, which quickly became one of the most successful of all Zionist groups. In her work with Hadassah, Szold used a combined ethical and pragmatic approach aimed at improving the lives of both Jews and Arabs. She later moved to Mandate Palestine to help shape education, health, and social services there. The pinnacle of her career came in her seventies, when she took on the task of directing the Youth Aliyah program, which rescued thousands of young people from the Nazis and resettled them in Palestine. Using Szold's copious letters, diaries, and essays, along with other archival documents, Francine Klagsbrun traces Szold's life and legacy with an eye to uncovering the person behind the Zionist icon. She reveals Szold as a complex human being who had to cope with controversy and criticism, a workaholic with an outsized sense of duty, and an idealist who fought for her beliefs even as she questioned her own abilities. With deep insight, Klagsbrun introduces listeners to this extraordinary woman, whose impact on women's lives as well as on education and health systems still resonates.

Francine Klagsbrun (Author), Dina Pearlman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978

A new history of the American Jewish relationship with Isreal focused on its most urgent and sensitive issue: the question of Palestinian rights American Jews began debating Palestinian rights issues even before Israel's founding in 1948. Geoffrey Levin recovers the voices of American Jews who, in the early decades of Israel's existence, called for an honest reckoning with the moral and political plight of Palestinian Sephardic roots, a former Yiddish journalist, anti-Zionist Reform rabbis, and young left-wing Zionist activists, felt drawn to support Palestinian rights by their understanding of Jewish history, identity, and ethics. They sometimes worked with mainstream American Jewish leaders who feared that ignoring Palestinian rights could foster antisemitism, leading them to press Israeli officials for reform. But Israeli diplomats viewed any American Jewish interest in Palestinian affairs with deep suspicion, provoking a series of quiet confrontations that ultimately kept Palestinian rights off the American Jewish agenda up to the present era. In reconstructing this hidden history, Levin lays the groundwork for more forthright debates over Palestinian rights issues, American Jewish identity, and the U.S.-Israel relationship more broadly.

Geoffrey Levin (Author), Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator)

Audiobook

Middle East Audiobooks in History