Call Me Back Podcast with Dan Senor
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Who REALLY Made the Modern Middle East - with Simon Sebag Montefiore
Posted
August 31, 2026
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August 31, 2026
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46:43Now PlayingHow much of the Middle East’s history was actually shaped by the West?
The story most of us learned about who created the modern Middle East is incomplete. Dan is joined by historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Cauldron, who argues that we give Western powers too much credit and the people of the region too little agency. In Part I of their conversation, they trace the forces that shaped the region, from the Ottoman legacy and the rise of nationalism to the Iranian Revolution and Islamism.
Purchase a copy of Simon’s book The Cauldron
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In this episode:
- Who really made the modern Middle East?
- The myth of empire as a Western phenomenon
- How the Middle East lost its diversity
- Did the nation-state fail the Middle East?
- Why Iran’s 1979 revolution changed everything
- How Khomeini turned Islamism into a regional force
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Credits: Ilan Benatar, Beth Pearlman, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo
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