The Tumultuous, Remarkable Middle East | Interview: Simon Sebag Montefiore

About this episode

While The Remnant has played host to many remarkable historians over the years, few have taken us on a more incredible ride than Simon Sebag Montefiore. As such, we’re proud to bestow on Simon our newly formed, not-really-endowed chair of Middle Eastern history. Tune in to hear Simon and Jonah Goldberg rove across time and space, covering Iran, Saudi Arabia, the 1979 revolution, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Israel, antisemitism, moral hysteria, Western obsession with Jerusalem, colonialism, nationalism, ethnicity, modernization, Islam, historical perspective, and, most importantly of all, the proper pronunciation of Turkey. Show Notes: —Simon Sebag Montefiore - The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East —Jerusalem: The Biography —Jonah’s last book, Suicide of the West —James Scott - Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed —Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: The Intelligent American’s Guide to Europe The Remnant is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of al