Episode 367

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Nationalism has greatly influenced the way we think about Palestinian history. In this episode, Salim Tamari discusses this question in relation to his new book, The Great War and the Remaking of Palestine, which explores Palestine under Ottoman rule during World War I. Tamari highlights the transformative nature of the conflict in Palestine, and the Ottomanist roots of many Palestinian and Arab nationalists. He also tackles the question of sources in Palestine, and how family papers have been crucial to his work. We conclude by discussing the stakes of recovering that past as the dispossession of Palestinians continues into the present.

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Contributor Bios

Salim Tamari is Professor Emeritus at Birzeit University and the Shawwaf Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He’s a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and the editor of Jerusalem Quarterly. He has published widely, and his most recent book is The Great War and the Remaking of Palestine. Sam Dolbee completed his Ph.D. in 2017 at New York University. His book project is an environmental history of the Jazira region in the late Ottoman period and its aftermath. In 2018-2019, he will be a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Mahindra Humanities Center.

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Sam Dolbee with Salim Tamari in Cambridge, MA

Select Bibliography

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