Thawra

Our mini-series on Arab radicalisms in the 20th century. Listen to Thawra through our website or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review!

Introducing Thawra

01 Feb 2024
Introducing Thawra, a miniseries on 20th century Arab politics. Over the coming 16 episodes, host Daniel Denvir and historian Abdel Razzaq Takriti delve into the history of the diverse political radicalisms and revolts that have...

Thawra Ep. 1 – Europe’s Imperial Juggernaut

21 Feb 2024
Today’s installment sets the stage: European imperialism in the Arab Mashriq from the late 18th century through the early 20th.

Thawra Ep. 2 – Birth of Arab Nationalism

27 Feb 2024
Today’s installment lays out 20th century anti-colonialism, including Iraqi, Syrian, and Palestinian Great Revolts, the birth of Arab nationalism, Islamic resistance, Ba’athism, and communism.

Thawra Ep. 3 – The Post-Colonial Arab State System

04 Mar 2024
Today’s installment is a comprehensive overview of the Middle Eastern Arab state system that crystalizes with the end of British and French colonial rule.

Thawra Ep. 4 – From the Nakba to Nasser

11 Mar 2024
Today’s installment lays out the politics surrounding the Zionist settler colonial destruction of Palestine, the Nakba of 1948, and the ground-shifting event that followed in its wake: the Nasser-led 1952 Egyptian Free Officers Movement coup...

Thawra Ep. 5 – The Struggle for Syria

23 Mar 2024
Today’s installment lays out the early years of a struggle for Syria that would decisively shape the Arab world: the fight for independence from France, the first (CIA-backed) coup of 1949, and the rise of...

Thawra Ep. 6 – Cold War Heats Up

02 Apr 2024
Today’s installment lays out the intensification of the Cold War across the Middle East. Western imperialist powers attempted to recruit Arab countries to the Baghdad Pact, a Middle Eastern NATO. Nasser rallied the Arab masses...

Thawra Ep. 7 – United Arab Republic Against Eisenhower

10 Apr 2024
Today’s installment lays out the the US’s Eisenhower Doctrine, which in 1957 inaugurated a new era of imperialism in the Middle East; the Ba’ath Party driving Syria and Egypt into the United Arab Republic, a...

Thawra Ep. 8 – Origins of the Arab New Left

26 Apr 2024
This is a compact introduction to the Movement of Arab Nationalists, which in the 1950s built a presence that stretched across the region, from Beirut and Jordan to Cairo and the Gulf—becoming a truly powerful...

Thawra Ep. 9 – Palestine on the Road to Revolution

03 May 2024
Today’s installment covers the creation of a Palestinian national liberation movement throughout the 1950s by a people dispersed by the Nakba: organizations, alliances, and theories of change assembled in the universities, cities, and refugee camps...

Thawra Ep. 10 – Iraqi Revolution, Communist Power

11 May 2024
Today’s installment tells the story of Iraq’s 1958 July Revolution: a Free Officers’ coup overthrew the imperialist-aligned Hashemite monarchy and brought nationalist Abdul-Karim Qasim to power alongside a surging Communist Party. Revolutionary currents soon turned...

Thawra Ep. 11 – Ba’ath Seize Power

23 May 2024
Today’s installment tells the story of the destruction of the two giant revolutionary projects of 1958: the union of Egypt and Syria under Nasser’s United Arab Republic and Iraq’s July Revolution that brought Qasim alongside...

Thawra Ep. 12 – Origins of Saudi Reaction

09 Jun 2024
Today’s installment tells the story of Saudi Arabia, a country whose reactionary, US-aligned trajectory was throughout the 1950s and 60s challenged by labor strikes, dissident currents, rebellious princes, and an anticolonial oil minister. But Saudi...

Thawra Ep. 13 – Revolutionary Arabia

19 Jun 2024
Today’s installment covers the armed left-wing revolutionary movements that challenged British imperial power across Southern Arabia, with the National Liberation Front taking over South Yemen and Dhufari rebels in Oman waging a liberation war against...

Thawra Ep. 14 – The Palestinian Revolution

07 Jul 2024
Today’s installment covers the rise of the Palestinian Revolution and then its explosion after the Arab defeat in the June War of 1967 with Israel. Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation and Palestine, and...

Thawra Ep. 15 – Black September

17 Jul 2024
Today’s installment addresses the Palestinian Revolution’s project in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan—leading up to the 1970 conflict with the Jordanian state and the violent expulsion of PLO guerrillas during Black September. Then, Egypt and Syria...

Thawra Ep. 16 – Siege of Beirut

30 Jul 2024
Today’s installment traces a massive defeat for the Palestinian Revolution: Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and brutal siege of Beirut. Under severe pressure and isolated in the wake of Egypt’s normalization with Israel, the PLO...

Thawra Epilogue: Islamic Revolution and Gulf Wars

30 Aug 2024
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the first of a two-part epilogue to Thawra (Revolution), our series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. Today’s installment covers the Iranian Islamic Revolution’s huge impact across the...

Thawra Epilogue: Decades of American Destruction

19 Sep 2024
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the second of what has become a three-part epilogue to Thawra (Revolution), our series on Arab radicalism in the 20th century. This episode takes us from the disastrous Oslo...

Thawra Epilogue: Genocide and Resistance

11 Oct 2024
Featuring Abdel Razzaq Takriti, this is the third and final part of the epilogue to Thawra (Revolution), our epic series on the history of revolutionary Arab politics. This episode takes us from Hamas’s victory in the 2006...