Syria and the Assad Family: The History Behind Bashar al-Assad's Rise to Power and the Civil War
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Narrated by:
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Phillip J Mather
About this listen
"I'm not a puppet. I wasn't made by the west to go to the west or any other country. I'm Syrian. I'm made in Syria. I have to live in Syria and die in Syria." - Bashar al-Assad, 2012
In early 2011, a political movement swept across the Arabic-speaking world that toppled despotic regimes and dictatorships. The political movement, which became known as the "Arab Spring", was popular in nature and made use of the Internet, particularly social networking websites, to remove dictators such as Muammar Qadaffi of Libya. Those dictators, who ruled their countries for decades, were unable to stem the tide of popular indignation against them, even though they tried using force and propaganda in ways reminiscent of the Cold War era.
The events of the Arab Spring have come to be overshadowed by the civil war in the Arabic-speaking nation of Syria, which has been ruled throughout the 21st century by Bashar al-Assad. Though he had not planned on ruling Syria, several events conspired to make Bashar the successor of his father, Hafez. Though the West frequently looked for signs that Bashar might be a reformer, due in part to his formerly popular Western wife, Assad remained part of a critical alliance with Iran and the sub-state groups Hamas and Hezbollah. This formed an influential bloc that has influenced events across the Middle East, and one that Israel and the West have tried to break over the past decade.
A crisis that may have threatened to involve either the United States, Russia, or both, appears to have been solved at least temporarily. However bigger issues concerning Syria still remain.
Syria and the Assad Family explains how Hafez al-Assad's son grew up and the events that brought him to power in Syria. It also comprehensively analyzes the ongoing civil war against Assad. You will learn about Syria's notorious dictator like you never have before.
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The Kurds: The History of the Middle Eastern Ethnic Group and Their Quest for Kurdistan
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Kurds: The History of the Middle Eastern Ethnic Group and Their Quest for Kurdistan examines the group and the contentious issues surrounding them. By delving deeper into their ethnic, religious, and political history, it is possible to understand the larger issues of statelessness and the striving for independence. At the same time, the relationships between the Kurds and the ruling regimes of the day have changed and altered the political landscape in the Middle East.
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Brief Historical Account but lacks depth.
- By Shadow Kurdi on 02-21-22
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Radicalized
- New Jihadists and the Threat to the West
- By: Peter R. Neumann, Alexander Starritt - translator
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The 2015 Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks heralded the beginning of a new wave of terrorism - one rooted in the ongoing conflict in Syria and Iraq that shows the possibility of foreign attackers working with citizens of the country. As ISIS seeks to expand its reach in the Middle East, its territory serves as a training and operations base for a new generation of jihadis.
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Drink every time he says “milieu”
- By Anonymous User on 12-31-21
By: Peter R. Neumann, and others
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The Crisis of Islam
- Holy War and Unholy Terror
- By: Bernard Lewis
- Narrated by: Bernard Lewis
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the frustrations and resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and tells us what the Islamic doctrine of jihad has meant at different times in history.
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Absolutely Worth It, HIghly Recommended!
- By Frank on 04-17-03
By: Bernard Lewis
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Making the Arab World
- Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East
- By: Fawaz A. Gerges
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2013, just two years after the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military ousted the country's first democratically elected president - Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood - and subsequently led a brutal repression of the Islamist group. These bloody events echoed an older political rift: the splitting of nationalists and Islamists during the rule of Egyptian president and Arab nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. Fawaz Gerges, one of the world's leading authorities on the Middle East, tells how the clash between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Islamism has shaped the history of the region.
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Why didn’t anyone tell the narrator he was mispronouncing the name of the guy the book was about?
- By Amazon Customer on 05-03-23
By: Fawaz A. Gerges
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Defeating Jihad
- The Winnable War
- By: Dr. Sebastian Gorka
- Narrated by: Russell Wade, Sebastian Gorka - prologue
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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America's fight against radical Islam could soon be over, and a top secret plan from the Cold War is the key to our victory. Dr. Sebastian Gorka, counterinsurgency expert and Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at Marine Corps University, explains how America can win the war on terror quickly and decisively by delegitimizing the enemy in the eyes of its followers - a strategy that won the Cold War and would end the era of Jihad forever.
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Now is the time to implement Dr. Gorka's jihad solution
- By Desiree on 04-23-16
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A Brief History of Ukraine
- A Singular People Within the Crucible of Empires
- By: Dominic Haynes
- Narrated by: Jordan Vogt
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Ukraine is a geographically diverse country with the unfortunate fate of being sandwiched between empires. Though this is frequently explored no further than the global conflicts of the 20th century, in reality, Ukraine’s struggle for self-determination has far deeper roots than most people realize. See the splendor of the Kyivan Rus, gallop with the Golden Horde across the Ukrainian steppe, encounter the legendary Cossacks, and witness the terror of the tsars. From the Romans to the Mongols to the Russians, Ukraine has seen it all and remained uniquely Ukrainian through it all.
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Excellent quick listen
- By Thomas J Anderson on 12-14-23
By: Dominic Haynes
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Israel
- A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world's attention, aroused its imagination, and, lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel's people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions.
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Excellent, mildly but honestly biased, terrible narration
- By Schaq on 04-01-17
By: Daniel Gordis
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Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War
- By: Robin Yassin-Kassab, Leila Al-Shami
- Narrated by: Fergus Nicoll
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Burning Country explores the complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first-hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists. Yassin-Kassab and Al-Shami expertly interweave these stories with an incisive analysis of the militarization of the uprising, the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of Syria’s government in exacerbating the brutalization of the conflict.
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Definitive Account of the Syrian Revolution
- By Theo Horesh on 06-07-18
By: Robin Yassin-Kassab, and others
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Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World
- A Concise History: Asia-Pacific: Culture, Politics, and Society
- By: Rebecca E. Karl
- Narrated by: Bobby Brill
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout this lively and concise historical account of Mao Zedong's life and thought, Rebecca E. Karl places the revolutionary leader's personal experiences, social visions and theory, military strategies, and developmental and foreign policies in a dynamic narrative of the Chinese revolution. She situates Mao and the revolution in a global setting informed by imperialism, decolonization, and third worldism, and discusses worldwide trends in politics, the economy, military power, and territorial sovereignty.
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A balanced view of Mao's life and legacy
- By Douglas A. Greenberg on 06-18-20
By: Rebecca E. Karl
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Black Earth
- The Holocaust as History and Warning
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first. Based on untapped sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think and thus all the more terrifying.
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Tough book but worth it!
- By Amazon customer on 11-20-15
By: Timothy Snyder
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From Muhammed to Burj Khalifa
- A Crash Course in 2,000 Years of Middle East History
- By: Michael Rank
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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To untangle the modern Middle East conflict and the 2,000 years behind it, this book is divided into 25 concise chapters. Each one is devoted to a major theme in Middle East history, such as the beginning of Islam, the Crusades, Genghis Khan, and the beginning of Israel in 1948. They can be read in a few minutes, giving you a fast overview of the issues and help you to understand Middle East current events.
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Interesting, but of course it's quite brief
- By Philo on 07-26-13
By: Michael Rank
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Lost Kingdom
- The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine - only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the confluence of Russian imperialism and nationalism today by delving into the nation's history.
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More like a history of Languages spoke in Russia.
- By kucherv on 10-24-17
By: Serhii Plokhy