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Olivier Guez: “What interests me are Promethean individuals.”: episode /11 of the Fou d’histoire podcast

Fou d’histoire gives a voice to those who are not historians, not historians but who carry history and tell it. A leg-passing and impossible return, a Nazi criminal on the run and a world to rebuild, Olivier Guez explores the past, in worlds in transformation. With Mesopotamiabetween the Tigris and the Euphrates, it is a human, political, archaeological adventure in the company of Gertrude Bell.

Mesopotamia, land of all desires

“I love this country, no one knows it as well as I do, and my hand is shaping its future.” From Baghdad, a woman named Gertrude Bell addresses these words to her father. It is November 1917, Europe is in the grip of a fratricidal war. Several thousand kilometers from the trenches, the great European empires are waging another battle, colonial and diplomatic, in the Middle East. This is what will be called the Great Game, which will replace the Mesopotamia at the center of the world and of desires, this time thanks to its oil. “Mesopotamia, the country between two rivers, the incredible wealth of its soil with agriculture and its subsoils […] has always attracted conquerors, invaders, and no one has ever escaped. And Gertrude Bell has this hubris of thinking that she, and the British around her, will this time succeed in taming Mesopotamia. That is why I wanted to call the book Mesopotamia, not to focus it only on Gertrude Bell, but on this country”confides Olivier Guez.

Guest culture Listen later

Lecture listen 17 min

Gertrude Bell, un personnage ambivalent

Gertrude Bell, archaeologist, spy, photographer, will play a fundamental role in establishing British influence on Mesopotamian territory. “Gertrude Bell is unclassifiable. She is both rebellious and very conservative, emancipated and very prudish. She is very ambiguous, which makes her a heroine of a novel and a heroine of history.”observes the journalist and writer. A convinced imperialist, she actively participated in creating modern Iraq by drawing its borders and imposing Faisal I, leader of the Arab revolts, as king of Iraq in 1921. A fascinating, romantic character, who joins the gallery of portraits already sketched by Olivier Guez, which tell the story of 20th century Europe, for the worst with Josef Mengele and the best with Maradona.

The Course of History Listen later

Lecture listen 59 min

Bibliography of Olivier Guez

Romans :

  • MesopotamiaGrasset, 2024
  • The Disappearance of Josef MengeleGrasset, 2017, Renaudot Prize
  • The Revolutions of Jacques KoskasBelfond, 2014

Tests:

  • The Grand Tour – Self-portrait of Europe by its writers, collective work supervised by Olivier Guez, Grasset, 2022
  • An absurd and all-consuming passion. Writings on footballObservatory editions, 2021
  • In Praise of DodgingGrasset, 2014
  • The Fall of the Wallwith Jean-Marc Gonin, Fayard editions, 2009
  • The Impossible Return. A History of the Jews in Germany Since 1945Flammarion, 2007

Scenario :

  • Fritz Bauer, a German hero by Lars Kraume, 2015

Sound references

Archives and film excerpt:

  • Discovering Iraq, the cradle of civilizationsarchive INA, 1972
  • Lawrence d’Arabiea 1962 film by David Lean starring Peter O’Toole
  • The 1921 Jaffa riots are described in Fourth Monday. Birth of IsraelORTF, June 28, 1971
  • Gertrude Bell’s Last Letter Read in Documentary An adventurer in Iraq, Gertrude Bell de Zeva Oelbaum & Sabine Krayenbuhl, ARTE, 2017
  • Pierre Bertaux on Joseph Roth in The Paths of KnowledgeFrance Culture, January 22, 1976

Musique :

  • Rivers Of Babylon by the Soweto Gospel Choir, 2007
  • Generic: Gender by Makoto-San, 2020
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