The Long 20th Century: The View from the Middle East

The lecture proposed a re-examination of the history of the 20th century in light of a slightly different perspective than the usual Euro-American one. This requires first considering the ingrained habits of mind and well-entrenched structures for the production of knowledge that have produced the usual approach to this history. It will also consider briefly how the Middle East in particular comes in when we think differently about the history of the 20th century.

Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. He was President of the Middle East Studies Association and an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the 1991-1993 Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.

He is the author of Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Undermined Peace in the Middle East (2013), Sowing Crisis: American Dominance and the Cold War in the Middle East (2009), The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (2006), Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (rev. ed. 2010), and Under Siege: PLO Decisionmaking during the 1982 War (rev. ed. 2014).

Thursday, 20 March 2014, 6.30 pm
CSDS Seminar Hall