Karl E. Meyer's guest appearances

Karl E. Meyer

KUCI: Weekly Signals

CUNY TV's City Talk

William Kelly

Steven Pinker

Donald Trump

Dan Doctoroff

Caroline Paul

Thomas Frank

Nicholson Baker

Bernie Sanders

Peter Beinart

Alexandra Natapoff

Paul Ryan

Matt Taibbi

Michael Moss

James Stewart

Douglas Rushkoff

OwlTail

Shareen Blair Brysac

CityTalk host Doug Muzzio is joined by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, authors of "Pax Ethnica, Where and How Diversity Succeeds". For the book, Meyer and Brysac undertook a two-year exploration of places notable for compromise on cultural rights.

Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac

An interview with Karl E. Meyer the author of Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East.Kingmakers is the story of how the modern Middle East came to be, told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. Some are famous (Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell); others infamous (Harry St. John Philby, father of Kim); some forgotten (Sir Mark Sykes, Israel's godfather, and A. T. Wilson, the territorial creator of Iraq); some controversial (the CIA's Miles Copeland and the Pentagon's Paul Wolfowitz). All helped enthrone rulers in a region whose very name is an Anglo-American invention.As a bonus, we meet the British Empire's power couple, Lord and Lady Lugard (Flora Shaw): she named Nigeria, he ruled it; she used the power of the Times of London to attempt a regime change in the gold-rich Transvaal. The narrative is character-driven, and the aim is to restore to life the colorful figures who for good or ill gave us the Middle East in which Americans are enmeshed today.Meyer has written extensively on foreign affairs as a staff member of the New York Times and the Washington Post. His co-author, Shareen Blair Brysac, formerly a prize-winning documentary producer at CBS News, is the author of Resisting Hitler. Tournament of Shadows was their previous book together. The couple lives in New York and Weston, Connecticut.

An interview with Karl E. Meyer the author of Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East. Kingmakers is the story of how the modern Middle East came to be, told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. Some are famous (Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell); others infamous (Harry St. John Philby, father of Kim); some forgotten (Sir Mark Sykes, Israel's godfather, and A. T. Wilson, the territorial creator of Iraq); some controversial (the CIA's Miles Copeland and the Pentagon's Paul Wolfowitz). All helped enthrone rulers in a region whose very name is an Anglo-American invention. As a bonus, we meet the British Empire's power couple, Lord and Lady Lugard (Flora Shaw): she named Nigeria, he ruled it; she used the power of the Times of London to attempt a regime change in the gold-rich Transvaal. The narrative is character-driven, and the aim is to restore to life the colorful figures who for good or ill gave us the Middle East in which Americans are enmeshed today. Meyer has written extensively on foreign affairs as a staff member of the New York Times and the Washington Post. His co-author, Shareen Blair Brysac, formerly a prize-winning documentary producer at CBS News, is the author of Resisting Hitler. Tournament of Shadows was their previous book together. The couple lives in New York and Weston, Connecticut.

Karl E. Meyer Interview / August 26, 2008