Today we’re bringing you the latest episode of Breaking History, the podcast where I go back in time, in order to make sense of the present. The last episode was about the history of bourgeois terrorism, in which I told the story of Ulrike Meinhof, who you could describe as the Luigi Mangione of West Berlin. Today, I tell the story of Edward Said, perhaps the most influential professor ever to teach at Columbia University—and the intellectual godfather of today’s pro-Palestine protesters. You can trace a bright line from his 1978 book Orientalism to the students who sympathize with Hamas today.
Listen to the episode, which features voices from both the past and present, here:
And if you’re a paying subscriber, scroll down to read the companion essay, which tells the story of the bitter academic rivalry that reshaped America’s understanding of the Middle East forever. If you enjoy it, make sure to follow Breaking History on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts—and you’ll never miss an episode.
