Dialogues in International History
This podcast intends to contribute to public education by offering listeners thorough and serious conversations on topics in international history and the history of international relations. It features interviews with authors of new monographs and recent books by historians and specialists.
Episodes
22 episodes
Steven Kaplan, *The Ethiopians: Lost Civilizations*. London: Reaktion Books, 2025.
Ethiopia has captivated observers since ancient times. This book provides a novel perspective on Ethiopian history up to the year 1500, beginning with the Aksumite civilization at the dawn of the Common Era. It revisits well-known stories such ...
Alexandra Natapoff and Guy-Uriel Charles, *America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance: An Essay Collection from Harvard Law School Faculty*. Cambridge, MA: MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Press, 2026.
This year commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a time when the United States is grappling with profound challenges to its legal structure, governance systems, and civic values. The foundational principles of pl...
Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell, *"P.S. Burn After Reading": The Kellock-Taschereau Commission and Soviet Espionage in Canada*. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2026.
Following the defection of Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko in 1945, Canada was stunned by the alarming revelation that some of its own citizens were engaged in espionage for the Soviet Union. This research explores how the Canadian government...
Thomas Peace, *The Slow Rush of Colonization: Spaces of Power in the Maritime Peninsula, 1680-1790.* Vancouver: UBC (University of British Columbia) Press, 2023.
In 1760, after Montcalm's defeat at the Plains of Abraham, the French Empire was permanently ousted from the Saint Lawrence Valley. This historical event is well-known. However, it is less recognized that this pivotal victory traces back nearly...
Alan Mikhail, *God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World*. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.
Historically overlooked, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual engagement, geopolitical power, and progressive governance. At its zenith in the sixteenth century, the Ottomans demonstrated extraordinary military prowess and held exclusiv...
Marcel Martel, Adrian Shubert and Tim Cook, *Wars of Conviction: A History of Canadian Transnational Fighters*. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2026
In 1867, Alfred LaRocque, a young man hailing from Quebec, left his home to defend the papacy in Rome. Fast forward to 1937, when journalist and communist Jean Watts traveled to Spain to report on the civil war. In 2023, former corporal Kyle Po...
Witney Schneidman, *This Africa Idea: A Memoir of Discovery, Diplomacy and Opportunity.* London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2026.
In 1971, shortly after completing his high school education, Witney Schneidman found himself at a secondary school in Mbarara, Uganda, where he listened to the radio as Idi Amin announced his takeover of the nation. He quickly recognized that A...
Víctor Barros and Aurora Almada e Santos, eds., *Amílcar Cabral and the PAIGC’s Binational Struggle for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde*. New York: Routledge, 2026.
The quest for independence in Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde was shaped by a variety of interactions and connections. The close association between the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde (PAIGC – Partido Africano da Indep...
Carter V. Findley, *Dreams of Empire: A History of the Ottomans*. New York: Oxford University Press, 2026.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the most dominant empires in the annals of history, governing territories across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa for more than six hundred years. At its peak during the sixteenth centu...
Peter Kasurak, *The Unequal Dialogue: Canadian Civil-Military Relations, 1950-2025*. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2026.
This monograph uncovers the escalating tensions in civil-military relations since the Second World War, as Canadian civil and military societies have increasingly disagreed on the objectives and composition of the armed forces. From the onset o...
William Jenkins, ed., *Canada and the Great Irish Famine*. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025.
In the summer of 1847, over four hundred ships arrived in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, carrying Irish men, women, and children fleeing the devastation and starvation caused by the Great Potato Famine.Tens of thousands of these refugees beg...
Olesya Yaremchuk, *Our Others: Stories of Ukrainian Diversity*. Zenia Tompkins and Hanna Leliv, trans. Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2020.
This book delves into the histories and personal stories of fourteen ethnic minority groups residing in contemporary Ukraine: Czechs and Slovaks, Meskhetian Turks, Swedes, Romanians, Hungarians, Roma, Jews, ‘Liptaks’, Gagauzes, Germans, Vlachs,...
Bryan MacMahon, *The Great Famine in Tralee and North Kerry*. Cork, Ireland; Mercier Press, 2017.
In this study, Bryan MacMahon prioritizes human stories over simple statistics, as he depicts the remarkable occurrences, upheavals, and challenges of the famine years through the eyes of those who lived through them, revealing insights that ha...
Patrice Dutil, ed., *Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy*. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2023.
Navigating the realm of foreign policy is a multifaceted challenge. Typically, obstacles and proposed solutions are seen as distinct unless a leader can rally enough support for an idea that promotes cohesion. As the prime minister often puts f...
Andrew Novo. *The EOKA Cause: Nationalism and the Failure of Cypriot Enosis*. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.
This book explores the origins, actions, and failures of Greek Cypriot nationalists in their pursuit to unify Cyprus with Greece. Andrew Novo investigates the anti-colonial struggle through the lens of: the competition for the nationalist narra...
Charles Schaefer, *Peace Not War: Traditions of Restorative Justice in Imperial Ethiopia, 1769-1960*. Rochester, NY: James Currey (an imprint of Boydell and Brewer), 2025.
Ethiopian emperors and their adversaries documented their accomplishments, including initiatives aimed at promoting peace, through a written language. This book emphasizes and analyzes historically substantiated instances, tracing back to 1769,...
Bridget Conley, *Memory from the Margins: Ethiopia’s Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum*. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
This monograph poses an intriguing question: "What role does memory play during a political transition?" By exploring Ethiopian history, transitional justice, and academic fields that deal with memory, museums, and trauma, Bridget Conley reveal...
Charles Keith, *Subjects and Sojourners: A History of Indochinese in France*. Oakland: University of California Press, 2024.
During the era of French colonial rule in Indochina, around two hundred thousand Indochinese individuals spent time in France. This research presents a captivating and thorough social, cultural, and political history of this varied group, which...
Kieran Glennon, *From Pogrom to Civil War: Tom Glennon and the Belfast IRA*. Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press, 2013.
When the Belfast pogrom, which targeted Catholics, broke out in July 1920, Tom Glennon was a 20-year-old officer in the IRA. Over the next three years, he transitioned from fierce street battles in Belfast to organizing a flying column in the G...
Bohdan Kordan, *No Place Like Home: Enemy Alien Internment in Canada during the Great War*. Kingston & Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 2025.
*No Place Like Home* explores a lesser-known chapter in Canada's national narrative: the initial use of internment during the Great War under the War Measures Act.By addressing the challenges of immigrant integration and belonging, Bohd...
Mark McGowan, *Finding Molly Johnson: Irish Famine Orphans in Canada*. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024.
Ireland's Great Famine led to the most severe refugee crisis in Europe during the nineteenth century. Over 1.5 million individuals departed from Ireland, with many finding their way to Canada. Among the most at risk were nearly 1,700 orphaned c...
Mary Cardaras, ed., *Voices of the Lost Children of Greece: Oral Histories of Cold War International Adoption*. London: Anthem Press, 2023.
This book is a compilation of essays from Greek-born adoptees who lived through the 1950s, a time following two wars that devastated the nation. This collection is unique, as it marks the first time this group of adoptees has united to share th...
