Victor McFarland is an assistant professor in the Missouri University Department of History. His research interests center on energy, the environment, and U.S. relations with the Middle East, with a special focus on Saudi Arabia. His book Oil Powers: A History of the U.S.-Saudi Allianceisavailable now from Columbia University Press. Originally from North Idaho, Dr. McFarland received his B.A. from Stanford University and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University. Before coming to the University of Missouri, he was a Miller Center fellow at the University of Virginia in 2012-13 and a Dickey Center fellow at Dartmouth College in 2013-14. In 2018-19 he servedas a Warren Center faculty fellow at Harvard University. You can follow him on twitter, here. From the Publisher: Since the mid-twentieth century, the United States and Saudi Arabia have built a close but often troubled alliance. In this critical history, Victor McFarland reveals the deep ties binding the leaders of the two nations. Connecting foreign relations and domestic politics, McFarland challenges the view that the U.S.-Saudi alliance is the inevitable consequence of American energy demand and Saudi Arabia’s huge oil reserves.Oil Powerstraces the growth of the alliance through a dense web of political, economic, and social connections that bolstered royal and executive power and the national-security state. McFarland shows how U.S. and Saudi elites collaborated to advance their shared interests against rivals at home and abroad. During the 1970s, as higher oil prices enriched the Saudi government, destabilized the American economy, and changed the balance of power in the Middle East, leaders of both countries responded by consolidating their alliance. Facing objections from their own people, Washington and Riyadh chose to shield their partnership from public oversight and accountability. While American support empowered the Saudi royal family and helped the kingdom expand its influence across the Middle East, Saudi elites also encouraged a rightward shift in U.S. foreign and economic policy—with profound long-term effects.Oil Powersreveals the role of the U.S.-Saudi alliance in laying the groundwork for American military involvement in the Middle East and the entrenchment of a global order fueled by oil. Some Highlights: Why Victor studies US - Saudi policy Arabic language Source base for the book Availability of Saudi sources What is an oil power? Is the US-Saudi relationship an "Alliance?" From King Abdulaziz to Prince MBS The importance of the 1970s Communism and the Cold War Israel The two-country approach to history Suggestions: Victor - Wadjda, (2013) film by Haifaa al-Mansour Steven - Cities of Salt, (1989) book by Abdelrahman Munif Cover image: King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, President Nixon and Mrs Nixon (May, 1971). https://youtu.be/DK6kYku6o7Y
Dr. Danielle Giffort is a medical sociologist who studies the politics of health and social movements. She recently published the book,Acid Revival: The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Quest for Medical Legitimacy (University of Minnesota, 2020). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Liberal Arts at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Her research has appeared inGender & Society, Sociology Compass, PsychCritiques,andMedEDPortal. You can read more at her website, here. From the Publisher: Psychedelic drugs are making a comeback. In the mid-twentieth century, scientists actively studied the potential of drugs like LSD and psilocybin for treating mental health problems. After a decades-long hiatus, researchers are once again testing how effective these drugs are in relieving symptoms for a wide variety of psychiatric conditions, from depression and obsessive–compulsive disorder to posttraumatic stress disorder and substance addiction. InAcid Revival, Danielle Giffort examines how this new generation of researchers and their allies are working to rehabilitate psychedelic drugs and to usher in a new era of psychedelic medicine. As this team of researchers and mental health professionals revive the field of psychedelic science, they are haunted by the past and by one person in particular: psychedelic evangelist Timothy Leary. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with people working on scientific psychedelia, Giffort shows how today’s researchers tell stories about Leary as an “impure” scientist and perform his antithesis to address a series of lingering dilemmas that threaten to rupture their budding legitimacy.Acid Revivalpresents new information about the so-called psychedelic renaissance and highlights the cultural work involved with the reassembly of dormant areas of medical science.This colorful and accessible history of the rise, fall, and reemergence of psychedelic medicine is infused with intriguing narratives and personalities—a story for popular science aficionados as well as for scholars of the history of science and medicine. Some Highlights: Knowledge Production Timothy Leary and LSD research Albert Hoffman and the discovery of LSD Indigenous cultures and use of psychedelics Eastern philosophy and mysticism Caution with psychedelic research Drug - Set - Setting methodology Objective truth in scientific research Conversion therapy Alcoholism remedy Self-Experimentation Researchers today - bringing in neuroscience Roland Griffiths and Johns Hopkins Suggestions: Danielle - Right now w/ John Globlikon on YT Steven - Jekyll and Hyde https://youtu.be/65pxO8cjvR4
Roger Moorhouse studied history at the University of London and is a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw. He is the author of several books on World War II history, including Berlin at War (shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize) and The Devils’ Alliance. He lives in the United Kingdom. His new book,Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II (Basic 2020), looks at the beginning of World War II in Poland. From the Publisher: A gripping history of the September Campaign and the onset of World War II For Americans, World War II began in December of 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor; but for Poland, the war began on September 1, 1939, when Hitler's soldiers invaded, followed later that month by Stalin's Red Army. The conflict that followed saw the debut of many of the features that would come to define the later war-blitzkrieg, the targeting of civilians, ethnic cleansing, and indiscriminate aerial bombing-yet it is routinely overlooked by historians. In Poland 1939, Roger Moorhouse reexamines the least understood campaign of World War II, using original archival sources to provide a harrowing and very human account of the events that set the bloody tone for the conflict to come. Podcast Highlights: The beginning of World War II in Europe How history is often "Written by the victors" Nazi propaganda Dispelling the Calvary vs. Tanks trope Race war against Poland The Soviet Union - victims, victors, or perpetrators? Polish resistance and the fight against invasion French and British response to the war Writing for a broad audience Elevating Polish accounts of the war https://youtu.be/w27y5b53s1g Suggestions: Roger: Katyn - Andrzej Wajda Steven:19 Polish Songs- Frederic Chopin Cover image:German troops breaking the border barrier in the Polish town of Sopot on the morning of 1 September 1939. The Soviet invasion would follow on 17 September.
James Carter is a writer and historian of modern China. He earned his PhD from Yale University under the direction of Jonathan Spence, and has taught since 1999 at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. His new book is Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai, coming in June from W.W. Norton. In it, Carter describes the many worlds of Shanghai on the eve of World War II, centered on the city’s celebrated race track just weeks before Pearl Harbor. Dr. Carter is the author of two previous books: Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a 20th-century Monk (Oxford, 2010) and Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932 (Cornell, 2002). He has also written about China’s modern history and its relations with the West for the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, ChinaFile, the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel, and numerous scholarly publications. More information about Dr Carter’s speaking and publications...
Harry Blutstein has worked as a freelance journalist since 1972 and his articles have appeared in major Australian newspapers. He is an adjunct professor at RMIT University and a fellow at the University of Melbourne. More recently he has published several books:An Insider's Guide to Australia(Kummerly & Frey, 1995),Ascent of Globalisation(Manchester University Press, 2016) and his latest,Cold War Games(Echo Publishing, 2017) and has been reviewed intheSydney Morning Herald, He is currently working on a book on the 1968 Olympic Games, the working title of which isGames of Discontent: Protests andPoliticalBattles at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, which should be available mid-2021. His twitter handle is @harryblutstein. About Cold War Games: Cold War Games: Spies, Subterfuge and Secret Operations The 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games have become known as the ‘friendly games’, but East-West rivalry ensured that they were anything but friendly. From the bloody semi-final water polo match ...
Dr. Thomas DiBlasi is an associate professor at St. Joseph's College in New York, where he teaches and writes about the history of psychology. Tom completed his PhD at Hofstra where he received general and specialized training in treating anxiety, depression, anger, and crisis counseling. At St. Joseph's College, he I teaches undergraduate students and research anger, aggression, and revenge. I am lucky enough to have nearly ten publications and over 25 presentations on such topics. I consider myself fortunate to have a clinical and a teaching job, where people trust me to be vulnerable and allow me to help them carve their path.You can read more, here. You can reach Tom on Psychology Today and My OCD Care You can follow Tom on Twitter @DiBlasiPhD. Some Highlights: Psychology- is it really a science? Objectivity and history John Watson and Behaviorism Predict, Control, Describe, and Explain Associationalism, neobehaviorism, and sociobehaviorism Teaching undergraduates online during ...
Dr. Anna Clayfield is an expert in history and languages and the current Programme Leader for BA Modern Languages & Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of Chester. Her latest book isThe Guerrilla Legacy of the Cuban Revolution (University Press of Florida, 2019). You can follow Anna on twitter @AnnaClayfield Buy the Book: About the Book: Analyzing official discourse, including newspapers, history textbooks, army training manuals, the writings of Che Guevara, and the speeches of Fidel Castro, Clayfield examines how the Cuban government has promoted guerrilla motifs. After 1959, the revolutionary leadership relied on this discourse to shape a new political culture. During the implementation of Soviet-style management in the late 1960s and 1970s, Cuba underwent profound structural changes, but the beliefs and values that underpinned the Revolution—and that were linked to the guerrilla ethos—were still upheld. Clayfield traces the shifting ideologies that ...
Dr. Ricky W. Law is a historian of interwar Germany, Japan, and transnational movements. His new book, Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919–1936, explores the cultural context of Tokyo and Berlin’s political rapprochement in 1936. Law shares his fascinating story on this episode of the Hour of History podcast explaining how he mastered German, taught in Japan and learned Japanese and combined the two skills to write history. He has shared his knowledge with students in courses that he created, with themes on genocide and weapons of mass destruction, nation-states in film, and democracy. He plans to develop other courses on German, Japanese, and Roman histories. He is currently working on a book manuscript on interwar and wartime Japanese foreign relations through the lens of foreign language acquisition. You can follow him on twitter here: @rickywlaw Read his book: From the Publisher: In 1936, Nazi Germany and militarist Japan built a partn...
Dr. Ferenc Laczó is an expert on European history and the editor of the recent volume The Legacy of Division: East and West after 1989 (CEU Press 2019). He is currently assistant professor in history at the University of Maastricht where he teaches in the European Studies BA, MA and Minor programs as well as at University College Maastricht. He also acts as the academic secretary of the research group Politics and Culture in Europeand is a member of the Faculty Council. His main research interests lie in political and intellectual history, modern and contemporary European history with a special focuson Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, Jewish history and the history of the Holocaust, and questions of history and memory. Heis the author ofHungarian Jews in the Age of Genocide. An Intellectual History, 1929-1948(Leiden: Brill, 2016) and two Hungarian-language booksNémet múltfeldolgozás. Beszélgetések történészekkel a huszadik század kulcskérdéseiről[The...
Douglas Smithis an award-winning historian and translator. His latest book isThe Russian Job: How America Saved the Soviet Union From Ruin ( Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019). Smith is the author of six books on Russia. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He studied German and Russian at the University of Vermont, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and has a doctorate in history from UCLA.Over the past thirty years Douglas has made many trips to Russia. In the 1980s, he was a Russian-speaking guide on the U.S. State Department’s exhibition “Information USA” that traveled throughout the USSR. He has worked as a Soviet affairs analyst at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich and once served as an interpreter for late President Reagan.Douglas has taught and lectured widely in the United States, Britain, and Europe and has appeared in documentaries for National Geographic, the BBC, and Netflix. He is the recipient of numerous awards and dist...