Les crises d’Orient (The Eastern Crises)- Henry Laurens
Henry Laurens
A specialist in the Arab world and questions of the Orient, Henry Laurens is a French historian and author of countless works, including: “Auxs ources de l'orientalisme la Bibliothèque orientale de Barthélemi d’Herbelot" (At the Origins of Orientalism, Barthélemi d’Herbelot's Oriental Library) (1978), “Paix et Guerre au Moyen-Orient, l'Orient arabe et le monde de 1945 à nos jours” (Peace and War in the Middle East, The Arab Orientand the World from 1945 to the Present) (1999),“La Question de Palestine” (The Palestinian Question) (2015) and, of course, “Les crises d’Orient" (The Eastern Crises) published between 2017 and 2019...
Henry Laurens was born in 1954 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. As he confided to French-Lebanese journalist Antoine Sfeirin a 2014 interview, from the age of ten he already knew he was going to be a historian. The countdown was on. In 1973, after completing his secondary education at Carnot High, young Henry entered the hypokhâgne class at Louis-le-Grand High, specializing in history. The program was on "Islam : from its origins to 850", and it was there that the future historian encountered the Middle East.
The student's involvement in the competition theme is total. Parallel to his studies, he decided to take Arabic lessons, then to pursue a degree in Arabic at the Sorbonne.
But looking at the Orient from afar wasn't enough. Henry Laurens wanted to embrace the Arab world in a concrete way. So, in 1977, he left to do his national service at Kuwait University. The adventure was just beginning. In 1981, his path crossed that of the French Institute of Arab Studies in Damascus, and of Cairo University the following year. In 1989, Henry Laurens completed his thesis on La Révolution française et l'Islam (The French Revolution and Islam), earning a doctorate in history.
In 2017, historian Henry Laurens, holder of the "Contemporary History of the Arab World" chair at the Collège de France, delivered lessons from his major work “Les crises d’Orient” (The Eastern Crises) to all those wondering about the origins of the Mediterranean region, its internecine wars, its actors and, perhaps, even its destiny. Far from an accusatory or moralistic discourse, Crises in the East patiently sets the scene, the players and then all the events that have taken place in this coveted and fantasized region. "Historians must recognize that they are not the masters of the representation of the past, they are only the artisans of the scientific segment of memory..." the author asserted in 2013, in the magazine Le Débat.
Henry Laurens meticulously and acutely recounts the many episodes that have unfolded in the region since the 1870s. From the little-known origins of the First World War to imperial rivalries, the historian leaves no stone unturned : neither the backstage of European diplomacy, nor the events that led to the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire in 1914, nor even the emergence of the concept of "Middle East" in British politics.
This essential work puts together all the pieces of the global geopolitical puzzle. We discover the central role played by Russia, the foundations of the Treaty of Lausanne and the predominant role of railways, oil...
Whether you're an insatiable reader or an attentive listener, rediscover Henry Laurens' stories in bookshops or in the podcast series "Les Crises d'Orient" on the Radio France platform.
Sources :
https://www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/cours/les-crises-orient-le-moyen-orient-partir-de-1914
"Le passé imposé par Henry Laurens 1/11 : Dans l’atelier de l’historien, quelques concepts de base, par Henry Laurens" sur https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/les-cours-du-college-de-france/dans-l-atelier-de-l-historien-quelques-concepts-de-base-7756763 via @radiofrance
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Laurens
