In this seminar, Jonathan Wyrtzen discusses his paper 'Reimagining Political Space: Empire, Revolt, and Competitive State Formation in the Middle East and North Africa in the 1920s'. Against a dominant historical narrative emphasizing the importance of war-time agreements (Sykes-Picot and others) and the post-World War I peace settlement in "making" the modern Middle East, this paper shifts the focus to the post-war decade, examining a set of synchronic "revolts" in the mid-1920s from Morocco to Turkey that were critical in negotiating new political topographies in North Africa and the Middle East. This comparative analysis looks at different typologies of state formation (both by the British, French, Italian, and Spanish colonial powers and by local actors including Ataturk, Ibn Saud, and Abd al-Krim) and of anti-state resistance, emphasising the importance of transregional linkages during this critical historical juncture.
Event Details
Speaker: Dr Jonathan Wyrtzen, Yale University
Chair: Professor Toby Dodge, LSE
Date: Tuesday 17 March 2015
Time: 16.00-17.30
Location: Room B.07, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, LSE
Attendance: This event is free and open to all on a first come first served basis. Our events are very well attended, please make sure to arrive early. We cannot guarantee entry.
Speaker
Jonathan Wyrtzen is Assistant Professor of Sociology/International Affairs and History at Yale University. His comparative-historical research interests focus on society and politics in North Africa, particularly in the areas of empire and colonialism, state and non-state forms of political order, ethnicity and nationalism, and rural and urban contentious politics. His next project focuses on a set of synchronic revolts in the mid-1920s from Morocco to eastern Anatolia to examine the contingencies, counter-movements, and negotiations involved in forging political space in the aftermath of World War I.