Frederic Wehrey, "The Burning Shores"

Frederic Wehrey discusses his book, "The Burning Shores" at Politics and Prose on 4/19/18.

After more than forty years under Qadhafi’s brutal regime, Libya had reason to hope for better times. Yet the fall of the dictator in 2011 unleashed civil war, ushered in the Islamic State, and led to an overwhelming migration crisis. In this masterful synthesis of reporting, history, and the deep knowledge of an experienced Arabic-speaking Middle East scholar, Wehrey explains what happened. He shows in detail where the West went wrong and profiles ordinary people whose lives were overturned, as well as drawing on interviews with the activists, revolutionaries turned- militia bosses, and jihadi recruits who have overturned them. He traveled extensively throughout the country, and his account is studded with unforgettable details such as descriptions of the ISIS stronghold in Sirte, Qadhafi’s hometown.

Frederic Wehrey is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His writing on Libya has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and other publications. A U.S. military veteran who served across the Middle East, he holds a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University. His first book, Sectarian Politics in the Gulf, was chosen as a Best Book on the Middle East by Foreign Affairs magazine. Born and raised in Southern California, he now lives in Washington D.C.

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Produced by Tom Warren