Ottomans
States of Divinity
The ways that today’s states deal with the sacred are not determined by how “secular” they are or the lingering effects of ancient traditions. Variations in how religion relates to public life around the world were rather set by the evolution of modern bureaucracies.
The Ugly Side of Nation-Building
The formation of states in the post-Ottoman Balkans owed much to individuals who had thrived in a world of rural lawlessness, warfare and violence. They brought the characteristics of frontier societies to bear on the political culture of these new countries, with lasting effects.
An Abandoned Village Bears Witness to Lebanon’s Famines – Old and New
The Memory Tree honors victims of the terrible famine that wiped out a third of the country's population a century ago. That same fickle, self-serving politics by Lebanon’s rulers has now plunged the country into a spiraling socioeconomic crisis, which is pushing people into hunger once again.
Blurred Lines
The Middle East’s post-Ottoman borders are seen as an ugly embodiment of the way colonialism, nationalism and the 20th-century state dismembered the region. But the Middle East’s new political regimes solidified these lines in the sand with fortified borders.