Middle East 101, Week IV

The Cosmopolitan Globalists discuss of the War of Independence and the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem, with a Benny Morris bonus. Also, I've solved the problem of our universities.

Palestinian refugees, 1948, in camps that were to become places of permanent exile.

Three women in the Haganah, circa 1940s. Zoltan Kluger, Israel Government Press Office.

I forgot to post this! My apologies. For those of you who missed it, I’ve posted the video of last Sunday’s discussion of 1948 and its significance below. Since the reading list was heavy—and the topic so crucial—we’re going to take two weeks with the reading and continue the discussion this coming Sunday.

I also forgot to include videos about this topic that might be useful. I looked on YouTube just now and found an amazing wealth of Benny Morris lectures. (Does he have someone follow him around the world with a video camera?) Given the high esteem I have for him as a historian, I’d love to watch every single one of them, but I don’t have time. Even though I haven’t watched them all, I’m sure any lecture he gives will be worthwhile and you’ll learn something new. But I can’t tell you which of these will be most worth your time. So if you watch one of these lectures and find it particularly good—or not—perhaps you’d be kind enough to say so in the comments?

Given that many of the world’s most interesting historians are now lecturing for free, on YouTube—and as far as I can tell, giving the same lectures they’d give if they were teaching a class at Penn or Harvard—it occurred to me to wonder why exactly students are crippling themselves with debt to go to those wretched places. It’s just not necessary. With a good syllabus, access to a good library, and YouTube, a self-disciplined autodidact can now learn everything he would be able to learn at even the very best universities.